


- Untitled -

by Onlyabstract



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, Angst, Drug Abuse, Explicit Language, F/M, POV First Person, Romance, Spoilers, Violence, references and inspired by routes but not a direct retelling of any
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-05-19 10:59:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 55,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14872497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onlyabstract/pseuds/Onlyabstract
Summary: Briar and Aspen, two college students studying abroad in Seoul, are dumped into a messaging app used by the reputable RFA for some unknown reason. Though the group is wary of their sudden appearance, they accept them into their association out of curiosity and fear for the girl's safety. Aspen connects easily, while Briar challenges the more pressing questions that are otherwise left ignored with the help of the very person who put them in this strange situation.Apartiallyoriginal spin on the overarching Choi twin drama of Mystic Messenger.





	1. 1.0

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This is my first time _posting_ a piece of mysme fic, and I gotta say, I'm pretty intimidated to do so. As usual, someone has asked me to post this, and so here it is! Point one of part one of this monstrosity I've scraped and recreated about three times now.   
>  A little forward, I've never been to Korea and do not know anyone who lives there. I've done minimal research but, this is a work of complete trash fiction so I'm not too concerned about how _accurate_ things are. I hope it is enjoyable either way.  
>  Additionally, the formatting of A03 is atrocious and is going to make this piece an utter mess. If anyone would like to read it _correctly formatted_ and what I consider to be the best experience with this story, please shoot me a message. I would love to personally send you the file for part one!  
>  Thank you!

**-*/ Part_One \\*-**

**1.0**

Music thumped loudly through the bar, the bass high enough to make the ground tremble and glasses rattle. A nauseating mix of sweat, alcohol, and smoke clogged the humid air as bodies bumped and grinded against each other in the dim lighting. I struggled my way out of the crowd, the feeling of the bass in my chest and the burn of the alcohol no longer a pleasant sensation but rather a threatening one. The little slice of my consciousness that hadn’t been taken over by the intoxicating atmosphere of the bar screamed at me to leave. Get home. Sleep. _This place isn’t safe anymore._

But my friend was still in there, lost in the high of the massive crowd of totally foreign faces and names. She’d drank a lot more than me, her consciousness too fogged over to hear the cry of sanity that I’d heard. I’d be lucky if she came to her senses before the sun rose… I wasn’t about to leave here alone, either.

It was our first night in Seoul… I should have pushed to spend it in the apartment rather than out celebrating. Aspen would have listened, wouldn’t have questioned my choice at all. We would have been unpacking and decorating and probably ordered food in from the first place we could find. A peaceful night after flying to the other side of the world.

But no. Aspen had been eager to see the city, experience the famed nightlife, and meet people. Things I wouldn’t have even thought of doing if I weren’t here with her. My closest friend, my other half… The one that both encouraged and embodied the entirety of my social abilities.

My numbing legs found their way to an unclaimed booth towards the back of the room where the music was slightly less overwhelming and the smoke hung in visible, heavy clouds overhead. I flopped into the seat and immediately felt the repercussions of the day, the weighted limbs and aching head, a sore spot on my knee from when I tumbled down the stairs earlier. I was going to hate myself for this the minute the sun rose.

_I need to get home._ A coil of anxiety and stress settled into my already uneasy gut and I tugged out my phone. Knowing no other way to even try and get Aspen’s attention… I sent her a text.

> **Briar:** Asp, it’s time to leave  
>  **Briar:** it’s late  
>  **Briar:** we’re drunk  
>  **Briar:** and we know nothing about this city.

Someone walked past my little nook and bumped into me – sending my phone flying from my hands and clattering to the ground somewhere under all the feet and dropped cups. My vision was too hazy to make any sense of the mess and my heart pinged with fear that I’d already lost my phone in this unfamiliar country.

I stumbled back up to my feet, staring down at the disgustingly sticky ground to search for my bright teal case against the darkness.

…Until someone tapped my shoulder and I span quickly to see a hand holding out the same case I was looking for, the screen on and showing off my dogs grinning face like a beacon of refuge in this disarray. A wave of relief washed over me as I took back the device and muttered a thank you, mistakenly in my native tongue.

A glance up and all I saw was the back of heads, no one, in particular, looking as though they’d just helped a lost drunk girl in the middle of a bar. Like that hand I’d seen had been nothing more than a friendly ghost looking out for the other withered beings of this world. I shuddered and the cell vibrated.

> **Aspen:** I’m right outside.

_Oh, thank god._

 

 

It took forever to shoulder my way out of the bar but once I did that initial feeling of fear that had driven me out of the crowd dissipated. The night air, although riddled with the stench and clamor of the city, was refreshing and I gulped it down happily. I found Aspen leaning up against the wall looking exhausted and giddy with the buzz.

A man stood next to her, tall, white-haired, and shockingly good looking. A concerned look rested across his pale face – my friend’s phone in his hand, clearly he was the one who had texted me. Considering the drunken grin on Aspen’s face I highly doubted she was capable of sending a comprehensible text at the moment.

“Ah, hello? What’s going on?” I said carefully, making sure my pronunciation was clear. The chilled night air having killed off most of the alcohol-induced fuzziness in my head, the second language coming much easier.

“Are you this woman’s friend? Briar?” He apologized for the informality and I waved him off.

  
“Yes, you must have been the one who texted me then?” I said with a gesture towards the pink cell.

  
Aspen slung her arms around my neck, nearly pulling me down to the sidewalk with the added weight. “Hey!! Briar! Check out this guy! He’s so nice and handsome.” She giggled and my eyes rolled on their own accord.

The man laughed as well, exasperated by my friend’s current state and seemingly embarrassed by her words. “She really should be getting home now. Would you like me to call a cab for you?”

“No, no it’s alright. We don’t live far, I can manage to get her home. Thank you for the thought though.” I smiled, attempting to spare this poor stranger any more hassle when Aspen was like this. _She’s going to be so upset about embarrassing herself._ One of her main goals for the first month was to make new friends and she’d already screwed up with one possible contender… we hadn’t been here even twenty-four hours yet.

“Live here?” He shook his head, chuckling to himself. “Excuse me for thinking otherwise, but I was so certain you two were tourists.”

“We might as well be,” I said with a sigh.

He bowed then, “Well if you will be in the neighborhood then, allow me to introduce myself, I’m Hyun Ryu. But you can call me Zen.” A friendly grin stretched across his lips and caused his eyes to light up.

I returned the gesture, “Hi, I’m Briar and this is my friend Aspen. It’s nice to meet you, Zen.” _This is a first, normally Aspen does all the introductions._ She was the people expert, the one who made everyone laugh and keep coming back for more.

“You as well! Now I couldn’t possibly let two girls walk through downtown alone at this time of night. So at least let me walk you to your block?” He offered, “I promise I won’t follow you.” Though his tone was joking and meant to diffuse any of the oddness of the courtesy, I still hesitated.

Not that he didn’t seem genuine and simply kind… But it was late. I was skittish and had horrible experiences to make a simple walk down the street with a strange man a much more ominous experience than it should have been. Aspen tugged at my jacket, forcing me to ear level with her mouth.

“It’s okay, he’s okay, I promise.” She slurred, the scent of booze on her breath making my stomach churn.

“Feel free to say no,” Zen said cheerfully.

I bit on the inside of my cheek hard enough to send a shock through my nerves. It was a new place, new city, new people. I needed to drop all of those fears and memories from the past, or at least stop assuming everyone was going to treat me the same way.

So despite my restrictions and anxieties, I said, “Sure, that would be wonderful. Thanks.”

 

 


	2. 1.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh yeah, this is multi-perspective as well.

**1.1**   


I watched the two girls hobble off towards the apartment, cheerfully chattering with that narcissistic actor. How convenient that he happened to show up as well, it would make their transition into the RFA even easier. If one already trusted and knew them then it wouldn’t take long for the others too as well.

A sneer slid across my face, the whole plan had worked far too easily. Everything sliding perfectly into place with such ease it was mind-boggling how little effort I had to put in. That brown haired, dead-eyed girl dropping her phone. The other one drunk and far away… Just too damn easy.

It was almost… disappointing in a way. Unsatisfying. I’d expected to put on a slight show of my own to persuade the two into following my plans. Hell, I’d figured I’d at least have to _speak_ to one of them before they walked off with a bugged phone.

Whatever. I’d get more time to fuck around with them later, once everyone was back home and distracted by their little digital worlds. I gave it an hour tops… then I could finish off this list of chores for today.

I’d have enough time to get everything set up, maybe even a bit of time to find out exactly who those two girls were. A simple phone number would get me more than enough information if I dug deep enough. I was already certain they weren’t from the country, just seeing one of their phones was enough to give that away. _This will be interesting._

_  
_

I found an open restaurant that was still fairly populated considering the late hour and set up shop in the corner, tossing open the small laptop and booting up the code I’d grown so accustomed too in the last few months. I glanced over the lines again, assuring everything would run correctly once I attempted to launch it all into motion. It was laughable to think everyone regarded _his_ hacking and coding skills at the top of the line. It’d been so easy to figure out and infiltrate his algorithms, turn the relative complexity against him. All he’d notice is a slight breach in the security system that couldn’t be traced anywhere.

Weak. That’s what his skills were. So over complex that it almost felt like basics. I had to bite back the scornful laugh that attempted to escape my lungs at the thought.

The hairs at the back of my neck stood on end, some woman behind the counter was watching me with a confused and scared expression. Some poorly paid employee that wanted nothing other than to go home at this point. I could feel her gaze on me. As badly as I wanted to ignore it she eventually attempted calling out to me, telling me I had to buy something if I intended to stay here much longer. With a groan I minimized the code and shuffled off to do as she asked, there was no point in making more of a fuss. Humans’ nerves and senses were on edge at this time of night, eating up every little bit of information possible and judging whether to gawk and stare or take a hike before things escalated. I didn’t need any extra attention on me. I ordered some obnoxious drink, hovering around the cool ceramic countertop as the nosy woman prepared it.

Something in her movements reminded me of that girl, the sway of her hips maybe? So slight but just enough to pull my attention away… _Do all women move like this? I’ve never noticed before._ The dead-eyed girl’s face flashed in my mind, that timid look that persisted even under the influence of all that alcohol she had gulped down throughout the night. Those empty grey eyes and the way she sputtered out her blind gratefulness in English. Something about all of it was so… interesting. I wanted to investigate further, beyond snooping through her personal information online. If only I had the option to take her myself… but The Savior had insisted on throwing both of them to the RFA.

Yet the idea of those wide grey eyes in my office, following my every request was so tempting. _He_ had an assistant… Why couldn’t I as well?

I shoved the idea away, leaving it to be pondered further later. But I did pull out my phone, figuring some harmless fun and coaxing of attention couldn’t hurt. Booting up the mirrored RFA app on my device, I sent off a message, sparking an initial download of the same thing into her phone. There was no way she wouldn’t notice it.

> **Unknown:** hello  
> 

The woman came back with my drink then, shoving this pink, fruity looking smoothie my way and demanding payment. I threw the cash at her and took the drink without another word, I hadn’t been expecting something so extravagant from some random restaurant open past midnight.

> **Briar:** …uhm. Hi. Who is this?

A grin slid across my face as I took my seat again.

> **Unknown:** My name is none of your concern  
>  **Unknown:** Just know me as the person who changed your life forever  
>  **Briar:** Excuse me??  
>  **Briar:** Did you hack my phone?  
>  **Briar:** My friend can find you. She’s just as good with computers.  
>  **Unknown:** You think I don’t know that already? Hah  
>  **Briar:** What do you want from me?  
>  **Briar:** Are you after her?  
>  **Unknown:** I’m interested in both of you.  
> 

I opened the code once more and hovered my finger over the launch button, waiting until she had started typing out her response to my last message. Firing off the script just as that message popped up. _There. Now you’re good to go._

> **Briar:** Don’t do anything to my friend. Just take me instead.  
>  **Unknown:** Oh yes… you’re very interesting…  
>  **Unknown:** It should be fun from now on. If they get too hesitant just tell them Rika sent you.  
>  **Unknown:** Sit tight. I’ll come get you soon.  
> 


	3. 1.2

**1.2**

My phone was fritzing out, all these flashing lines of green words and numbers flashing across the screen rapidly. It looked like the type of stuff Aspen had open on her computer all the time, code… I guess. So someone really was hacking the cell then. _Seriously? Why now?_ It vibrated and I dropped the device to the bed, staring wide-eyed as it opened into some chat log with at least five people talking. I jumped from the mattress and leaned over the railing from my loft. Aspen was sprawled across the couch downstairs, though it was dark I could see her drooping eyes through the light of her 3DS screen.

“Aspen…?” I called, hesitant to yell. I didn’t know how thin or thick these walls were yet.

She jumped, nearly tossing her system to the ground before fumbling and catching it once again. “Wh-what? I’m here, I’m awake.” Her gaze scanned the room before looking up at me confusedly.

“Something is wrong with my phone… I think it’s hacked.”

 

As expected, she wanted to investigate immediately. I followed her into the side room she had claimed as hers and took a seat on the edge of her bed. She flicked on the lamp on the desk and booted up the desktop all while reading through the messages shooting across my screen. Casual conversation, nothing notable according to her at least. She hooked the thing up to her computer and pulled up some strange looking program that opened up windows on both monitors.

“Try sending a message?” She asked, the loud clicking noise of her keyboard nearly drowning out her voice as her fingers expertly weaved across the buttons.

I hesitated, not really wanting to interrupt the strangers’ conversation but the eager look on my friends face forced me to type out a message.

______

> **Briar:** Hello…  
>  **Yoosung:** !!?  
>  **707:** ???  
>  **Zen:** Briar…? Seven, who is this?  
>  **707:** I don’t know?! Who are you?? How did you get into this chatroom?  
>  **707:** Are you a hacker?!?!  
>  **Yoosung:** Hacker!!! ;;  
>  **Briar:** Uh, no. Sorry, I don’t really know HOW I got in here…  
>  **Jumin Han:** You best explain yourself now, Briar.  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** I’ll call V…  
>  **Jumin Han:** Good idea, Jaehee.  
>  **Briar:** This just showed up on my phone. There was someone talking to me beforehand… the username was just Unknown though…  
>  **707:** Unknown?  
>  **Yoosung:** Do they not have a name?  
>  **707:** That’s impossible. No one can log into this app without entering a name.  
>  **707:** Is the log still there?  
>  **Briar:** I can’t find it… I think it deleted when this chatroom opened  
>  _V has entered the chatroom_  
>  _Aspen has entered the chatroom_  
>  **Aspen:** AHAH  
>  **Aspen:** IT WORKED!  
>  **Briar:** Aspen?!?!  
>  **Aspen:** Yes! I couldn’t figure out where the hell this program came from but there was a second port…?? Like..  
>  **Briar:** It was there for you…  
>  **Briar:** …That Unknown… They said something about being interested in both of us?  
>  **Aspen:** Wait what are you talking about? Unknown?  
>  **Aspen:** Briar, exactly how LONG has your phone been hacked???  
>  **707:** WHAT IS GOING ON!!!  
>  **Zen:** Wait…  
>  **Zen:** Briar and Aspen…?  
>  **Aspen:** Zen? Are you the same Zen?!  
>  **Zen:** So you are the two girls I just walked home?  
>  **Yoosung:** What?  
>  **707:** Zen, you know them?  
>  **Zen:** I just met them at this little club downtown  
>  **Jumin Han:** Everyone. Slow down. Aspen. Briar. Explain yourselves clearly.  
>  **Jumin Han:** What exactly happened?  
>  **V:** Thank you, Jumin.  
>  **Aspen:** Bri, you first! ^^  
>  **Briar:** Okay, well first. Yes. We just met Zen, he helped Aspen out of a bad situation and walked us both home. When we got back I got some strange messages from someone named Unknown coming from this app… which I didn’t have before I got the messages…? It seemed like they knew us? They didn’t say much before my phone went all crazy and when it stopped I was in here.  
>  **Aspen:** Then she yelled at me and I checked out what was going on and found a second port through whatever device had hacked into here ORIGINALLY and just a second of fiddling with some things and now. Hi. I’m here!  
>  **Aspen:** Making sure this isn’t some sex trafficking stuff ^^  
>  **Yoosung:** So there IS a hacker! Aspen!  
>  **Aspen:** Hey! I never called myself a hacker T-T… I’m more just…  
>  **Briar:** Technologically inclined.  
>  **Aspen:** Yeah sure that works lolol  
>  **V:** Well this is concerning…  
>  **V:** Luciel… please look into this hacking incident.  
>  **707:** already did…  
>  **707:** I found a tiny, tiny tear in security from about forty minutes ago… The person left a message about some ‘endless party’?  
>  **707:** So what is this unknown person trying to accomplish by bringing two people in…? Seems like the least threatening thing they could do.  
>  **Zen:** An Endless Party doesn’t sound bad either haha  
>  **Yoosung:** it sounds fun!  
>  **V:** It makes no sense.  
>  **Briar:** Um… another thing they said… Was to say Rika sent us…?  
>  **V:** …  
>  **707:** RIKA?!  
>  **Yoosung:** WHAAAT?! RIKA?  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** Oh dear.  
>  **Jumin Han:** So this hacker knows about Rika, that doesn’t mean much. She was a well known, well respected person.  
>  **Jumin Han:** Lets not let this distract us from the issue at hand.  
>  **Aspen:** Who is Rika?  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** Rika is the founder of this organization – RFA  
>  **Yoosung:** Rika’s Fundraising Association!  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** She was a very caring, motivated individual who has sadly departed from our world quite recently. Additionally, she was V’s fiancé.  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** I apologize if this is a bit much to concede, V.  
>  **V:** No, no. It’s quite alright, Jaehee. Thank you for explaining.  
>  **Aspen:** I’ve heard of the RFA. Throws parties for big, big rich people to donate tons of money to those in need.  
>  **Aspen:** Pretty well-known~  
>  **V:** Yes, though our messenger is not known at all.  
>  **V:** It is private and managed by Luciel.  
>  **707:** That’s me~ ^^  
>  **Zen:** I don’t know about you guys, but this whole ‘unknown’ thing is bothering me.  
>  **V:** It’s bothering me too, Hyun… They know about us, about Rika, and decided to drop two girls in for some unknown reason… I don’t understand the intention.  
>  **V:** Luciel, I trust you are already looking further into this? I want to know who this Unknown is and how they’re connected to Rika and the RFA.  
>  **707:** Yup! I’ll find your answers!  
>  **Jumin Han:** I would like a background check done on Briar and Aspen as well… We can’t trust anyone who appears so suddenly like this.  
>  **Jumin Han:** Who’s to say they aren’t working with said unknown.  
>  **Aspen:** Oh trust me, the last thing I’d do is work with some shady hacker  
>  **Aspen:** Especially if it meant endangering my best friend.  
>  **Aspen:** Anyway…  
>  **Aspen:** I’m Aspen Morrow! My friend is Briar Hollows! We’re both college students from the US here for study abroad, literally just got here today actually!  
>  **Aspen:** Feel free to do background checks and if you have any other questions we are more than willing to answer, right, Bri? ^^  
>  **Briar:** right.  
>  **Zen:** I trust them.  
>  **Zen:** I pride myself in my ability to read people and as far as I can tell, Briar could do nothing wrong and I assume the same for Aspen… Though we didn’t get much of a chance to talk ^^;  
>  **Aspen:** hehe, soorrry. I don’t normally drink like that;;;  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** It still stands that we know nothing about them though, Zen. As accurate as your intuitive assumptions tend to be this is very odd.  
>  **707:** I’m not seeing anything noteworthy…  
>  **707:** But…  
>  **707:** Aspen. I know your school.  
>  **707:** Pretty famous even on the other side of the world hehehe  
>  **Aspen:** Oh yeah… You know… you’re pretty famous on the other side of the world too, Seven~  
>  **707:** yah. I’ve heard.  
>  **707:** >///<  
>  **Briar:** What?  
>  **Yoosung:** Yeah! What??  
>  **707:** Later, later~~  
>  **707:** I’ll keep looking, but on the surface level they’re clear.  
>  **707:** Totally spotless records...  
>  **707:** Not even a speeding ticket!!  
>  **V:** Thank you, Luciel, that is enough for me to make a quick decision then… I want both Briar and Aspen to continue checking in here from time to time. I’d hate to find out anything bad has happened to you two because of our organization. Especially considering you’re visitors to the country.  
>  **Yoosung:** So we have new members??  
>  **V:** At least until we can assure they are safe – both themselves and ourselves… But, yes, we do.  
>  **Aspen:** :O  
>  **Jumin Han:** I am surprised, V. Are you assuming they are pawns for this unknown hacker?  
>  **V:** Yes, right as you always are, Jumin.  
>  **V:** additionally, we’re in no position to turn them away considering they know about this app now. Whether they are truthful or not, Luciel will be able to find the answers.  
>  **707:** And unknown!  
>  **V:** Yes… please treat them kindly, everyone. They’re likely just as confused as we are.  
>  **V:** I’m afraid I must get going now, going to loose service soon… Briar, Aspen – welcome to the RFA.  
>  **Aspen:** Thanks!! ^^  
>  **Briar:** Thank you for your concern, I hope we don’t cause any difficulties…  
>  **V:** Goodbye, everyone  
>  _V has left the chatroom_  
>  **Zen:** Well! I certainly didn’t think you two would be members of the RFA on top of being my new neighbors lol  
>  **Briar:** Right…  
>  **Briar:** Aspen, do you feel embarrassed yet?  
>  **Aspen:** Shut up T-T  
>  **Jumin Han:** What reason do you have to be embarrassed?  
>  **Yoosung:** Weren’t you paying attention Jumin? Aspen got drunk, that’s why Zen brought her home lol  
>  **Jumin Han:** So you’re a heavy drinker then?  
>  **Aspen:** NO!;;;;  
>  **Briar:** lol, she really isn’t.  
>  **707:** eheheh  
>  **707:** ohohoh  
>  **707:** This is exciting *-*  
>  **Yoosung:** Yes it is!!  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** I must say, it would be nice to have some other girls in here…  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** I’d say I’m hopeful that you two are being truthful about your innocence and that nothing terrible comes of this hacker…  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** Though, to my understanding, nothing good can come of a hacking incident…  
>  **Briar:** I’m sure I speak for both of us when I say I hope you all find us trustworthy soon… Then we can figure out why this whole mess happened in the first place.  
>  **Aspen:** …Fresh meat?  
>  **707:** FRESH MEAT! FRESH MEAT! FRESH MEAT!  
>  **Briar:** That’s not… ominous at all…  
>  **Zen:** I think we’re all just very excited to get to know you both, Aspen and Briar.  
>  **Zen:** It’s been too quiet around here… I was getting pretty tired of listening to Yoosung complain about school  
>  **Yoosung:** Hey!! I don’t complain that much  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** Yes you do  
>  **Jumin Han:** Yes, you complain every day.  
>  **Aspen:** Lmao, it’s okay, I feel your pain Yoosung  
>  **Yoosung:** THANKS  
>  **Briar:** lol… So Yoosung, you’re a college student then?  
>  **Yoosung:** Yeah  
>  **707:** OH DUH  
>  **707:** WE SHOULD INTRODUCE OURSELVES GUYS  
>  **707:** CANT LEAVE THE FRESH MEAT IN THE FREEZER!  
>  **Jumin Han:** Your analogy makes no sense, Seven.  
>  **707:** *Ding-Dong*, Jumin has volunteered as tribute!  
>  **707:** Introduce yourself Jumin!!  
>  **Jumin Han:** …  
>  **Jumin Han:** I have nothing to say  
>  **Zen:** Of course you don’t. All you guys need to know about Jumin is that he’s the trust fund kid who only cares about his business and his money.  
>  **707:** Jumin is the heir of the largest corporation in all of SK!  
>  **707:** He also has a cat  
>  **Zen:** Can we ignore the cat.  
>  **707:** But I love Elly!!  <3  
>  **Jumin Han:** Her name is Elizabeth the Third.  
>  **Yoosung:** He also has a reluctant assistant! Jaehee!  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** *Sigh*  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** You’re all pretty brave to explain about yourselves so suddenly…  
>  **Jumin Han:** Is it bravery? Or foolishness.  
>  **Aspen:** lolololol  
>  **Aspen:** I want to see the cat o-o  
>  **707:** SHOW US DARLING ELLY  
>  **Zen:** I forbid it!!  
>  **Jumin Han:** Elizabeth’s angelic face would light up this chatroom quite well right now…  
>  **Zen:** MOVING ON  
>  **Zen:** I know we’ve already met, but I’m Zen. I’m a rising actor in the area~  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** He is phenomenal  
>  **Briar:** Oh! That’s awesome!  
>  **Zen:** Why thank you, Briar  
>  **Briar:** Are you currently acting in anything at the moment?  
>  **Zen:** I actually have an audition coming up for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** Oh… Oh, that will be… I can already see the perfection that this play will be…  
>  **Zen:** Lol, I hope I get the part.  
>  **Briar:** If you do, we’ll have to go see you perform! ^^  
>  **Aspen:** YES!! OMG that would be awesome!!  
>  **Zen:** I will certainly keep everyone updated!  
>  **Jumin Han:** As if you even need to ask him too…  
>  **Zen:** -_-  
>  **707:** Yoosung!!  
>  **707:** Your turn!  
>  **Yoosung:** okay, um, hi.  
>  **Yoosung:** I’m Yoosung, I’m a college student… I love video games, and animals, and…  
>  **707:** lolololol  
>  **Yoosung:** What??  
>  **707:** So awkward.  
>  **Yoosung:** I’m not good at this stuff, okay!! T-T  
>  **Aspen:** You know what you should do then???  
>  **Yoosung:** What?  
>  **Aspen:** Someone else should describe you!  
>  **Briar:** That’s a good idea! You’re friends know you the best ^^  
>  **707:** Oooo! I can tell you allll about Yoosung  
>  **Zen:** I don’t think your explanation would be very credible Seven;  
>  **Yoosung:** Yah, I’m kinda scared T-T  
>  **707:** T-T  
>  **707:** You should trust me more  
>  **707:** Yoosung is a kind, spunky, fun game-addict college student that will warm your heart in a matter of hours~  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** …Wow… that was much…  
>  **Jumin Han:** Nicer than expected.  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** Exactly.  
>  **Yoosung:** Wow! You think I’m spunky?  
>  **707:** The most spunky, my boy  
>  **Aspen:** lol ya boi  
>  **707:** dat boi  
>  **Briar:** Aspen… Really  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** Oh no... She’s another one of those types isn’t she?  
>  **Briar:** Yes.  
>  **Aspen:** WHAT?! What type T-T  
>  **707:** hehehehe one of my types -o <  
>  **Aspen:** What is ‘your type’, Seven?  
>  **Aspen:** Can you introduce yourself or should someone else do it  
>  **707:** You already know all you should about me~  
>  **Zen:** He’s the ‘mysterious’ one.  
>  **Yoosung:** A hacker  
>  **707:** Yup.  
>  **707:** Oh so mysterious  
>  **707:** So enticing  
>  **707:** You’re just dying to know more…  
>  **707:** BUT!  
>  **Jumin Han:** No one cares  
>  **707:** …  
>  **707:** T-T  
>  **Zen:** What about you two? I’d love to know more!  
>  **Aspen:** lol. Seven got shut down so fast.  
>  **Aspen:** If it makes you feel better, I’m interested~  
>  **707:** Oh a fan!  
>  **Briar:** Aspen is a complete dork, extremely outgoing and loud… if you guys haven’t noticed that already. She’s really smart and nice as well. One of the nicest people I know.  
>  **Aspen:** AND BRIAR IS REALLY QUIET AND SWEET AND SHY BUT SHE’S LIKE THE DEFINITION OF PERFECTION! If I’m ‘nice’ then… well idk what to even call her… a saint I guess??? Literally I don’t think a kinder person exists in this world.  
>  **Aspen:** Andandand she always knows exactly what to do to make someone smile, and is super open and understanding and…  
>  **Briar:** Okay;;;  
>  **Briar:** You can stop with the compliments.  
>  **Aspen:** ITS NOT JUST COMPLIMENTS IT’S THE TRUTH  
>  **Aspen:** SHE’S LIKE MY SISTER SO YOU BETTER WATCH YOURSELVES AROUND HER!! I’LL BEAT UP ANYONE WHO MAKES HER SAD EVEN FOR JUST A SECOND!  
>  **Briar:** T-T  
>  **Zen:** So you’re pretty close then? Haha  
>  **Jumin Han:** Clearly.  
>  **Aspen:** Closer than Close! Closer than blood!  
>  **Yoosung:** you both sound super cool ^^  
>  **707:** quality fresh meat  
>  **Aspen:** lmao  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** I’m excited to get to know both of you better ^^  
>  **Briar:** I’m excited to get to know all of you!  
>  **Aspen:** Yes!  
>  **Briar:** It will be nice to have some people to chat with… Neither of us really know anyone in the area…  
>  **Aspen:** ha, more like no one in the WHOLE COUNTRY?!  
>  **Briar:** Yeah… So, this is nice…  
>  **Briar:** As odd of a situation as it is that we met you all. I appreciate you opening your arms too us.  
>  **Jumin Han:** We all look forward to working with you two, once your truthfulness has been validated.  
>  **707:** lol  
>  **707:** They’re fine, Jumin.  
>  **Jumin Han:** I would like to believe so, but I would rather be certain than making quick assumptions.  
>  **707:** Alright, alright.  
>  **Briar:** ^^;

______

I excused myself from the chatroom much earlier than Aspen did, finding myself completely drained after trying to keep up with the messages for so long. She seemed to have no issues with it whatsoever, still giggling and tapping at her keyboard eagerly. I vaguely remembered her talking on some similar looking messenger platforms in the past so she was probably accustomed to the rapid fire speech and constantly switching topics much more than I was. She’d fit right in, and I was happy to see her so excited about it.

The RFA… they were kind and decent people. Yet my gut still harbored this uneasy feeling about all of it. As wonderful as this was, to have a group to ask questions and talk with, I couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious about the situation. This was a private messaging app for a charity organization run by some fairly powerful, well-known individuals in the country. We had no reason whatsoever to be talking with these people, especially on their own private messaging service.

…And the whole hacker thing… Why us? Why now?

Had the hacker been the person who helped me in the bar? They’d only had my phone for a matter of seconds, it didn’t seem possible that they could have installed the chatroom in such a short amount of time… But then again, anything _was_ possible with technology – especially when the person handling it was an expert. Aspen had proven that point to me plenty of times in the past.

So Seven would be able to find this person quickly then, right? He was an even greater expert than even Aspen…

Which reminded me, “Aspen?”

“Yes?” She spun around fast, grinning widely.

“How do you know Seven?”

Her mouth shaped into an ‘o’, eyes going wide. “Oh, right, yeah. In one of my freshman classes, like the introduction classes, we talked about famous hackers for some reason?” She started off. I keenly remembered her complaining about that class frequently, saying it was a waste of time and resources. “The last one the professor talked about was seven-zero-seven. He’s like _super_ famous among the hacking community.” The smile that spread across her face with those words filled in her thoughts on the matter – she was beyond herself with excitement.

_So that answers my question then_ , he should have no trouble putting an end to this mess. “Really? That’s crazy.” Rising actor, corporate heir, and a famous hacker? How did all these people even _know_ each other? It was such an odd, yet powerful collection of individuals. “Did you ever expect to be talking with him?”

“Of course not! But it’s so freaking cool that I am!” She half shouted, swinging back around to face her computer screen and start typing again. “All of these people are so _cool_! Like, I know it’s kind of creepy that a hacker dropped us in here… But this is still awesome. Everyone is so nice!”

I shoved off the bed and stood at the corner of her desk, watching the messages fly across her screen. For a half second, I found myself worrying I had made a bad first impression, that my choice to leave so early while the other mysterious intruder kept talking would be seen as callous. Like I wasn’t interested… But I shook the idea off, I couldn’t assume things. It was a stupid thought to worry about considering the other issues going on at the moment. “You’re not worried about the hacker thing?” I asked Aspen, struggling to let _that_ worry go.

She reclined back in her chair, blue eyes scanning me inquisitively before saying, “No, Seven is famous for a reason. I’m sure it’ll be all fixed up in less than a day.” Another grin cracked across her face, “Then we won’t have anything to worry about! Plus a whole new group of friends to keep us company!”

_So that’s that then_. If she wasn’t worried about it then I had absolutely no reason to be either.

…Yet I still felt so uneasy.

“Briar.” Aspen’s voice came in a much flatter tone this time, the sudden change making me jump. She was eyeing my hands which were unconsciously fidgeting with the hem of my jacket. I quickly shoved them into pockets and tried to release some of the tension from my shoulders with a breath. “Are you okay?” She asked.

My response came out of habit and I cringed the minute the words left my lips. “I’m fine.”

Her eyes narrowed, mouth set in a disapproving line. “Briar… We made an agreement about that word.”

“Sorry… Sorry… I’m just…” I sighed, successfully releasing some more of the tension with the exhale. “Tired and stressed. It’s been a long day.”

Back to the smile like it was as easy as flipping a coin. “Oh yeah, it really has been quite a doozy of a day hasn’t it?” She giggled at her own wording. “Go get some rest! We’ve been up way too long anyway.”

_Rest… Yeah, I’ll feel better after sleeping._ It was the first night in a totally new country, first time moving without the help of some sort of parental figure… That stress was probably the source of my anxieties and sleep would certainly help wane it off. “Yeah, I’m going to sleep.” I muttered, taking a step out of the room and passing a timid smile over my shoulder to my far too kind friend, “Don’t stay up too late talking to them, we have a lot of unpacking to do tomorrow.”

She threw a hand up in a dramatic salute, speaking in a very stern monotone “I will do my best to get a healthy amount of sleep tonight, commander!”

My eyes rolled, _dork._ “Alright, goodnight, Aspen.”

“Goodnight Briar!” She called in a sing-song voice, the sound of her keyboard echoing her words as I headed for my room. _I doubt she’ll get any sleep…_


	4. 1.3

**1.3**

The phone line fizzled and popped, the sound coming through it hard to interpret over the noise of the street and chattering passerby. “You have to stay in the city for now. I have already wired money for a hotel room and will send more if need be. Just don’t come back here until I say so.” Her voice was just as smooth and soothing as it normally was but somehow it did nothing to calm the uneasiness that had slipped into my stomach with those words. _Stay? Here?!_ Did she not realize how terrible the outside was for me?

_No, she knows. She’s the one constantly reminding you where you belong… So why is she keeping you away from said place? What did you do wrong this time?_

Alternatives started racing through my mind, ways to convince her to let me protect the building from whatever had gone wrong, reasons that I had to come back, but I knew nothing would work. Not only was I not allowed to voice my oppositions, s _houldn’t even be thinking this way, you idiot,_ but she had already made up her mind before calling. There was no swaying her from a decision once it was made. _The savior is always right._

Now I was stuck, forbidden from entering my own home for god knows how long. Suddenly this city I had successfully thought nothing off had warped into something much larger, darker, and more intimidating. I didn’t want to stay here… I didn’t like all the noise, all the faces, all the busyness. It was all mixing together in my head, creating this thick fog that made it hard to think straight.

“As you say.” My voice wavered and I cleared my throat in hopes of covering up the falter.

“Thank you. I will call again soon.” With those simple words, the call was cut… and my strength went with it. All the wind rushed from my lungs and a cold trickle of fear disrupted my chest, all the muscles in my body tensing up. _Is every single person on this street staring at you? It feels like they are. I don’t like this._ My hands turned to fists, nails cutting into the soft skin of my palm hard enough to make me wince; hopefully, the shock would be enough to get the voice in my skull to shut up.

I had to find a place to stay for the night and it was already hellishly late. Did hotels accept people at this hour? Would any front desks be open? What was I to do if there wasn’t any place to go?

How did hotels even work?! Asking for a place to stay seemed like such a complicated thing to ask a stranger behind a desk. I didn’t want to do it. I wanted to go back to Magenta; I wanted that warm, dark room of humming computers and the rough sheets of my bed that caught on every dry piece of skin possible. That was _mine_ , a hotel room wouldn’t be _mine._

_There’s no other choice…_ A quick search of hotels provided me a result of five currently open facilities, three of which with vacancies. It was just a matter of picking one of the buildings and… talking to the employees behind the desk... Dammit.

A different notification dragged my attention away, albeit it wasn’t hard to steal. All the RFA members had just logged off their stupid little chatroom for the first time since I dropped those girls in there. _Have they really been talking all this time?_ Sheesh. Clearly, I’d picked some good candidates for this mission.

…So they aren’t busy anymore… _hmm._

> **Unknown:** How’d you like it? ^^  
>  **Briar:** …  
>  **Briar:** what do you want? Who are you? _  
> _

_She’s still awake… Good._

> **Unknown:** How many times are you going to make me tell you  
>  **Unknown:** My name doesn’t matter to you.  
>  **Briar:** Are you the person who picked up my phone at the bar?  
>  **Unknown:** you’re really good at coming up with pointless questions, aren’t you?  
>  **Unknown:** If you must know… yes. I am. But you can’t do anything with that information anyway.  
>  **Briar:** ...is that the only reason you picked us? Cause I dropped my phone??  
>  **Unknown:** haha wouldn’t you like to know why I picked you? Like hell I’ll tell you why.  
>  **Unknown:** Anyway. I helped you out. Now help me.  
>  **Briar:** Excuse me? What did you do for me? Why would I help you?  
>  **Unknown:** I got you and your friends into that exclusive RFA club. Now you’ve got plenty of hot guys to talk too. I think you owe me for that.  
>  **Briar:** I don’t owe you anything. All you did was put my friend and I in danger. It’s pretty bold of you to come asking me for a favor after that!

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that message. Did she not care about how attractive all those RFA idiots were? I’d figured their appearance would be enough to captivate any girl into going along with their scheming… Maybe she was better than I thought. A little less mindless than the other one.

But then… What the hell was motivating her to keep talking with those idiots?

_Interesting question but now isn’t the time to have it answered, focus._

> **Briar:** Isn’t this a bad idea? Don’t you think Seven would be watching for you right this very moment? I’m sure he can track this too!  
>  **Unknown:** He can’t. Don’t you dare talk about that lying idiot.  
>  **Unknown:** And what’s that about Danger? There’s no danger. How is a chatroom dangerous??  
>  **Unknown:** Just help me out. I’m not asking for anything crazy.  
>  **Briar:** …  
>  **Briar:** What.  
>  **Unknown:** …  
>  **Unknown:** ……  
>  **Unknown:** ……… how do I get a hotel room?  
>  **Briar:** … Are you serious…?  
>  **Briar:** Lmao. You’re kidding right?  
>  **Unknown:** Don’t be an asshole. Just… What do I do.  
>  **Briar:** You’ve really never been to a hotel before? Don’t you have anyone else you could ask??

She asks way too many fucking questions. It was starting to drive me crazy, nearly every damn text ended in a question mark.

_If you want her to help you stop being such a jerk._

I swore under my breath, passing a glare to the curious guy that stopped in front of me then. He stumbled trying to rush away, passing frightened glances over his shoulder. The other people on the street picked up the pace as well like a herd of sheep running from a wolf... That in combination with all the chatter in my head wasn’t helping with the rising annoyance.

> **Unknown:** No. Just. Help. Me.  
>  **Briar:** lmao ok fine. I’ll help just because it’s not hard. First… do you need it tonight? That makes a difference, especially since it’s past midnight…  
>  **Unknown:** yes  
>  **Briar:** Okay… well they will charge you a lot more then. You’re supposed to make a reservation.  
>  **Unknown:** I don’t give a shit about money.  
>  **Briar:** ok… Do you have ID and credit card?  
>  **Unknown:** Of course.  
>  **Briar:** Then you should be able to go in and tell the clerk you need a room for the night. As long as the place you stop at is open and has vacancies they should let you in.  
>  **Unknown:** …That’s it??  
>  **Briar:** It should be. It’s really not that complicated.  
>  **Unknown:** … ok.

_Say thanks._ No.

_It's impolite to not._ Who cares.

_Do it!_

> **Unknown:**...thanks...

I could have done that without asking her. What a waste of time. _But now you don’t feel so anxious about it. She wasn’t a waste of time._

Ignoring the insistent comments coming from the back of my head, I shoved off to head to the closest place available. Some hotel chain that was popular around the globe, at least according to the internet.

I’d thought the conversation would be over then, had been planning on ending and erasing all data there… But she kept talking and I wasn’t opposed to keeping myself busy while walking. I looked like I belonged on these streets with my face down in my phone anyway.

> **Briar:** So… why do you need a hotel?  
>  **Unknown:** I didn’t say you could ask questions.  
>  **Briar:** I helped you. Now help me!  
>  **Unknown:** Don’t pull that bullshit  
>  **Briar:** It’s not bullshit. You didn’t actually do anything for me beforehand, so now you owe me a favor too… PLUS, you kept me up for this so. Just tell me why you need a hotel, and no lying.  
>  **Unknown:** I do NOT lie.  
>  **Briar:** Okay, so wouldn’t forcing me to do a favor and you not returning one be a form of lying? Isn’t that what favors are for?

_She has a point. You kept her up and made her do a favor for you. It would be wrong to not return the gesture. If you didn’t then you’d be no better than…_ I’m not like them, I can’t be like them. 

> **Unknown:** grr.. screw you.  
>  **Unknown:** My… superior… has forced me to stay in the city. I don’t know why. I don’t like it.   
> **Briar:** Superior huh?

I’d said too much with that, even if it was vague. She wasn’t stupid, she’d be able to piece information together fairly well. I’d have to be more careful with my words if I planned on talking to her in the future. If I left too many breadcrumbs for this girl to snatch up the RFA’s stupid hacker would be on my tail quicker then I could cover myself up.

With that thought in mind, I quickly entered the code to eradicate all records of that conversation, feeling a pang of… something… as I realized she’d been typing out some other message to me. W _onder what she was going to say…?_ Doesn’t matter. I’d gotten what I was looking for from that conversation, no point in dragging it on any longer.

 

The hotel lobby was empty, cold, and eerily quiet. The air reeked of chlorine and bleach which lead me to believe there was a pool down the hall somewhere. Typical tourist-business hotel, then. _I’m sure this lady has dealt with weirder customers than you._ The women standing behind the desk looked bored and half asleep even as I approached. She barely reacted as I asked for a room, lazily typing something into the computer and sticking her hand out for the two things Briar had warned me about presenting.

A moment later I was standing on the sixth floor with a keycard in my hands, the corresponding room in front of me. I had a feeling it shouldn’t have been _that_ easy. Didn’t these places care about what type of people they were accepting as residents? Any crazed psychopath could get a room at this place with that woman working the front desk.

_Crazed psychopath? Do you mean you?_

Asshole. That applies to you too, you know.

…The voice had no response to that and I shrugged off the thoughts, quickly opening the door before some neighbor stepped out and saw me standing there looking confused. I walked into a cool darkness and quickly latched the door behind me, flicking on the light switches right next to the frame and casting the far too clean smelling room in a dim, yellow light.

A sink and mini-fridge, a desk, a TV, chair, large bed. Bathroom with usual fixings. Exactly what was to be expected based off what books and movies had shown of hotel rooms. It shouldn’t have looked familiar to me, but something about the lighting and the layout brought a dull ache to the back of my head. Weird images of some guy standing in the doorway of a room strikingly similar to this flitted about behind my eyes, too foggy to make much more sense of them… Trying to focus on it anymore made that dull ache expand and press harder against my skull.

Whatever… Let it go.

Once I’d made this room _mine_ I’d feel fine.


	5. 1.4

**1.4**

Unpacking and decorating ended up being a tedious task for both Aspen and I. As excited as we had been to set up the apartment before moving, the actual act of cleaning up, arranging, and hanging things up was far less entertaining than we had expected. The introduction of the RFA did nothing to help speed up the process either. The messenger granted both of us a far more interesting activity to distract from the work meaning we still hadn’t finished clearing out all those boxes even four days after arriving.

…And not much progress had been made in terms of identifying and stopping the hacker either. Seven had found nothing more than ‘fingerprints’ on chatrooms, as he had put it. They were watching, for sure, but he wasn’t sure what the hacker’s true intent with the RFA was.

They had finished the background searches though, and without saying much about it, V and Seven had both stated Aspen and I were safe. It was anticlimactic, even to us. Jumin had expressed some greater hesitance, but apparently, V’s word was the end all be all for everyone but Yoosung who had already decided to trust us from the start.

It was easy to forget the hacker was even a problem with the way things had been going.

 

I stared down that last box in the corner of my room full of pictures, books, and other non-crucial items and attempted to will myself to finish it off. I’d be thankful that I did in the end, the bare walls and empty shelves made the lofted room look like an odd attempt at a comfortable mental institute – depressing and dull with minimal effort to combat those traits. It would feel so much better in here with all my pictures of family and nature…

With a heavy sigh, I shoved off the mattress and started pulling tape off cardboard, figuring there was nothing better to do with my time anyway. One of the flaps ripped off with a chunk of tape, exposing a framed photograph from within. Something old, worn, and totally _unfamiliar_. The hair at the back of my neck stood on end and a cold shiver shot down my spine as I scooped the thing up hesitantly. _I don’t remember packing this…_ In fact, I didn’t remember the picture at all. An image of me, maybe five years old at the time, my father – a stupid grin on his face like always, and my mother with an emotionless stare. _I thought I got rid of all the pictures with her…?_

A crash from below shocked me, the photo nearly flying from my hands with the jump. I set the thing on my desktop to be dealt with later and rushed downstairs to see Aspen standing in the kitchen. A glass bowl laid, shattered on the tiled floor, popcorn scattered everywhere. She swore and looked at me with a sheepish, guilty grin on her lips.

“Oops. Too slippery.” She held her glistening, butter coated hand up with a hesitant laugh. “ _Pretty_ sure that was our only bowl too?”

It was… and the expression on my face confirmed her doubts.

A shattered bowl was reason enough to send us shopping. Food, other kitchenware, school supplies, we needed a lot but hadn’t had reason enough to search out the closest E-mart until now. It was a bit too far to justify walking, especially considering we’d have a lot to carry back, so we put Aspen’s rented car to use for the first time as well. She spent a good five minutes freaking out about how weird it was to be driving in a different country, then another five trying to find a radio station she liked.

I considered bringing up that picture as she maneuvered her way to the unfamiliar location. She would be just as confused and worried as I was, plus, she’d be able to come up with a half reasonable explanation for the thing turning up like that. Yet I couldn’t get the words out of my mouth. Every time I tried to bring it up or allude to it through normal conversation my throat constricted and my palms went sweaty. _I could just show it to her… That would be easier._

Though I was hopeful it wouldn’t _be_ there by the time we got back. That it would somehow vanish like it’d never been in that box, to begin with… Like I’d just hallucinated the whole thing. I’d rather deal with the concern of such a realistic hallucination than the anxiety of seeing a picture of my mother in my luggage.

Another cold shiver shook my nerves and I squeezed my eyes shut. _She’s gone. It’s over. It’s long over._ She was locked up in prison years ago, hadn’t contacted since before then, and I was in an entirely different country now. I had no reason to be so freaked out by a picture, nothing would come of it. My mother wasn’t going to magically contact me after eleven years of silence just because I found a photograph.

Aspen yelped and the car jerked quickly into the other lane, a blaring horn screaming at us with the sudden jump. She swore under her breath before passing me a frightened look, “Sorry!”

“It’s fine.” A glance at our surroundings made the mishap very understandable. There were so many cars, buses, taxis, pedestrians and all of them were in a rush, dipping, and weaving around any obstacle possible. It only made sense that she would slip up in this mess, it was nothing like the traffic back home. “At least you didn’t kill us.” I laughed.

“True!” She grinned, clearly relieved to hear I wasn’t upset with her for nearly crashing. “I won’t space out anymore, don’t want to break anything else.”

“You do seem pretty distracted today.” I reflected, the bowl drop and near accident – though totally mundane and understandable, were still unlike her. She wasn’t a klutz. “Is something on your mind?”

When she didn’t answer right away I glanced back at her face, nearly shouting as I noticed the slight tinge of red to her cheeks. _Is she blushing? Is she actually blushing?_ A tiny, nearly inaudible gasp left me and her face went even redder – eyes flashing to mine a few times before she said, “Uh, nothing, nothing really.”

T _hat response… There’s only a handful of things it could be…_ “You’re blushing! It’s most certainly not ‘nothing’.” I razzed.

She shook her head hard, “I don’t want to talk about it, okay? It’s dumb.”

_Dumb?!_ “Aspen.” I moaned, “Please? You and I both know it’s not dumb if you're distracted by it.”

A long groan, then the coin flipped and she was energetic again. “How about this!” She threw a finger up, “If it keeps bothering me, then I’ll tell you. But for today! We’ll let it go.” She pinned me with a sugary smile, batting her eyelashes to top it off.

“I’ll agree on one condition.” I countered, giving her my own smug smirk.

Wariness fell across her face, eyes narrowing and lips pressing into a thin line.

“You have to honestly and truthfully tell me if this has anything to do with a guy.” It was unlikely, but it was one of the few reasons I could see her acting like this…

…And her face turning tomato red was an answer enough. “Uh… Y-yeah.”

As badly as I wanted to press for more, I didn’t. I zipped my mouth and fell back into my seat with crossed arms, though my mind was already racing through every possible option of a guy that could be distracting _Aspen_ of all people. There was someone that was super upset about her leaving for Korea back at college, an Alex. Could it be him?

“So hey, anyway!” She boomed suddenly, bouncing in her seat to the beat of the music. “What kind of food are we getting? Do you think they’ll have a whole American food aisle like the foreign food aisles back home? Do you…” She kept going with at least ten other similar questions and it was so painfully obvious that she was trying to distract _me_ now.

 

Aspen continued her high energy antics throughout the store, hopping around and talking about every item that caught her eye. She was absolutely glowing with excitement, though I failed to understand what could possibly be so exciting about a foreign version of a Walmart. I followed her around, trying my best to keep up with her cognitive trails even if they were unbelievably sporadic.

I gave up once we got to the world food aisles. She rushed around pointing to all the same food we had eaten back in America and raving about the prices and the fact that they considered ‘this’ so special when ‘something else’ was far superior in her preference. I focused on grabbing the things that we may need or want later down the line, trying to ignore how outrageously expensive some simple things were. Like peanut butter. That would become an issue fast.

“I have no idea what the packaging even looks like, Mr. Han.” Said an oddly familiar voice down the aisle. “I don’t see why we can’t order these candies online. I’m certain we could get same day delivery if you absolutely have to have them now.” I glanced down, seeing the voice came from a woman speaking on the phone. She tugged at the cuffs of her fancy business suit with clear irritation through her words masked the distress well.

Aspen noticed her as well. “Mr. Han? Like Mr. Jumin Han?” She said, grinning ear to ear. Clearly, she was making the same assumptions I was.

The woman, having overheard Aspen’s comment, glanced between both of us with varying degrees of shock and confusion before she said, “Ah, Mr. Han, please hold on a moment.”, and she pressed the cell to her shoulder. “How do you…?”

Aspen spoke first, “Are you Jaehee? Member of the RFA?”

She jumped, covering her mouth to hide a tiny gasp. “So you are the new members?!”

Aspen exploded, shouting ‘yes’ and variations of ‘oh my god’. Jaehee took a hesitant step back from the noise, laughing awkwardly.

I took the chance to step in then, giving her a pleasant smile “I warned you she was a bit of a spitfire. She can be pretty overwhelming at first.”

“I would say so.” Jaehee agreed, watching the far too energetic girl bounce and laugh at herself before looking to me. “So, Briar, then? It’s nice to meet you face to face, phone calls don’t do either of you any justice.” She bowed quickly.

I mimicked her, “likewise. I didn’t expect to meet you here. What brings you to this E-mart midday like this?”

“Jumin mission?” Aspen asked, finally contributing something of value to the conversation, not just laughter.

Jaehee sighed heavily, “I’m afraid so. He’s wanting to try this American candy I’ve never heard of before, but I can’t find it.” Stress flashed across her face and she quickly placed the phone against her ear once again. “Sir! Apologies for the wait, I’ve run into Briar and Aspen at the store.”

“What’s he looking for!” Aspen said, nearly shouting. I had no doubt she was attempting to have her voice heard over the line. “I bet I’ll know it!” She grinned.

Jaehee hesitated a moment before carefully saying “Sour Patch Kids” in strained English.

“Oh! I have some bags back home! It’s some of my favorite candy and when I heard they didn’t sell it here I got so sad. So I brought as much with as possible.” Aspen said, oozing happiness. “I wouldn’t mind giving up a bag for you guys!”

Considering the fact that we had a drawer stuffed with the stuff in the kitchen, I didn’t mind giving away more than just a bag myself. I couldn’t help but laugh at the relief that visibly surged through Jaehee.

“Did you hear that sir? Aspen can give you a bag of the candy.” She said over the line. A moment of silence as Jumin presumably responded, then Jaehee’s eyes rolled and she handed the phone off to Aspen. “Here, discuss with him.”

“Sure thing!” Aspen said, excitedly taking the phone and spinning around to continue wandering the aisle. “Hello Mr. C-E-O, how can I help you today!” I heard her say, over-pronouncing ‘CEO’ in this almost mocking sounding tone that dragged an embarrassed sigh out of me. How could she be so casual and relaxed with someone with so much power? I couldn’t understand it.

Jaehee shook her head, “Her mannerisms remind me of Luciel so much it’s almost scary at times. It’s like their related.”

“Maybe they're from the same planet,” I said. The two did get along frighteningly well, chatrooms with both of them present had been nearly unbearable to sit through. It was a constant stream of jokes and oddities that interrupted most conversations that attempted to persist through the mess. Apart, they were fine. A little goofy, sure. But together it was like they resulted in a nuclear reaction of boundless energy.

Then it dawned on me. Aspen’s tomato red face in the car, admitting to her distraction being due to a guy. Did Seven have anything to do with that?

“Are you adjusting well to the country, Briar? It appears that Aspen and you have adjusted to the group rather well. Everyone is so comfortable around you already, it’s quite phenomenal.” Jaehee asked, passing a kind smile my way. “It’s only been four days, but it’s like you two have been around for ages already.”

“I’m glad you feel that way.” I answered, “You’ve all been very kind despite how little we know of each other and how suddenly we dropped in.”

She hummed, “Yes, I think we all trust you guys a fair bit. Though I’m sure V’s persistence is the reason everyone is so calm over the matter. It is very odd that Luciel has yet to find more information about this hacker, though, he’s normally so quick with such a task.”

“I think Aspen’s distracting him too much,” I commented.

“I could see that being the case.” Jaehee laughed. “I’m hopeful an end will come soon. As relaxed as things have been, there’s a very unpleasant tension present knowing there’s a hacker on the loose.” She turned to me again, “It must be especially worrisome for you two, being put in such a strange situation due to some stranger.”

I should have been worried, but for some reason, I couldn’t view this hacker as anything scary or dangerous after that conversation we’d had the first night. They didn’t seem so terrible, but they hadn’t been exactly pleasant either.

“O-kay!” Aspen hopped back over to us, making both Jaehee and I jump and bringing another giggle out of the girl. She handed back the phone to its rightful owner before explaining what had been discussed. “He doesn’t want to take the candy from me for free for some reason. I guess he’s too much of a businessman to get candy from a friend.” She laughed once again, “so he wants to give us something in return.”

“Uhm, what would that be?” What was candy worth beyond a bit of money?

She shrugged, “I dunno! Anything I guess.”

“How complicated.” Jaehee said, “So how are we getting this ‘precious’ candy then?” The sarcasm that dripped from her voice made me laugh.

“I’m going to deliver it later today,” Aspen said with a bright smile. “After we’re done here.”

“And after we’re finished unpacking, right?” I pushed.

“Oh, yeah, right.” Yet another laugh. “After that, too.”

“I apologize for disrupting your day for such a menial reason like delivering candy. I can’t understand why Mr. Han has made this so important.” Jaehee said, bowing in forgiveness. “I’ll make sure the repayment is adequate for all your trouble.”

“Oh don’t even worry about it, Jaehee! I get to meet two of the RFA members in one day then!” Aspen said excitedly, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and yanking me close to her. “And I’m sure Briar doesn’t mind at all either! Right?”

“Right.”

Jaehee smiled, “Okay, well I’ll be seeing you both later on then.”

“Yup!” Aspen said.

“Then good luck with your tasks until then and it was nice to finally meet you both.” She said in parting, giving a quick wave and heading towards the exit.

Aspen shouted after her, “Good luck to you too Jaehee!”

______

> **Zen:** I cannot believe how hard this role is;;  
>  **Zen:** I’m playing two characters!!  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** I believe in your abilities, Zen. I’m certain you can overcome any difficulties.  
>  **Zen:** Thank you for the support, Jaehee, I’m very worried about it.  
>  **707:** You can do it, Zen!  
>  **707:** You can do anything!  
>  **707:** you’re the expert of acting!  
>  **707:** The GOD of acting!  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** For once, I can agree with Luciel  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** To some extent  
>  _Aspen has joined the chatroom_  
>  **Aspen:** A  
>  **Aspen:** H  
>  **Aspen:** H  
>  **Aspen:** !  
>  **Aspen:** I’m so exhausted T-T  
>  **707:** Aspen!!  
>  **707:** Why so tired??  
>  **Aspen:** we FINALLY finished unpacking! It took SO L O N G  
>  **Zen:** Moving is such a pain, isn’t it.  
>  **Aspen:** yes. Especially moving to a whole different country :c  
>  **707:** soo wooorth it thooo, ya?  
>  **707:** you got to meet us because of it  >.o  
>  **Aspen:** lolol yes it has been worth it c:  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** Aspen, will you and Briar still be coming by the office?  
>  **Aspen:** I think so?  >.>  
>  **Aspen:** Briar disappeared into her room a while ago and I haven’t seen her since  
>  **Aspen:** I think she fell asleep hahaha  
>  **Zen:** Wait, wait, wait  
>  **Zen:** You two are going to the C &R building?  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** They will be  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** Mr. Han is anticipating their arrival quite anxiously…  
>  **Aspen:** hehehe soooorrrry it’s taking so long T-T  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** no, no, no need to be sorry. We’re the one’s being an inconvenience.  
>  **Zen:** Why are you two going to meet with that guy.  
>  **Zen:** wouldn’t you rather hang out with me?  
>  **Aspen:** lololol I’m delivering American candy to Mr. future CEO  
>  **Aspen:** So Jaehee doesn’t have to look all over Seoul for it  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** Yes, we met each other at the store today.  
>  **707:** WHAAAT  
>  **707:** So jealous;;  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** Of what exactly? The candy?  
>  **707:** candy, candy, candy  
>  **707:** and you get to see the kitty  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** …What does Elizabeth have to do with this?  
>  **Aspen:** OHH do I get to meet Elly???  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** She isn’t here at the moment, but I have no doubt Jumin would bring her down for you two…..  
>  **707:** hehe. Yeah. Elly.  
>  **707:** <3  
>  **Zen:** Isn’t Aspen so adorable, Jaehee? And Briar is so gorgeous.  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** I wasn’t looking at them in such a way, Zen.  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** But they are very attractive individuals…  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** I do not see the point in acknowledging this though.  
>  **707:** A  
>  **707:** dor  
>  **707:** A  
>  **707:** ble  
>  **707:** …  
>  **707:** T-T  
>  **Aspen:** ^^;;  
>  **Aspen:** I feel so awkward now.  
>  **Aspen:** I’m gonna go check on Briar and see if she’s ready to go now!  
>  **Aspen:** See you soon Jaehee!!!  
>  _Aspen has left the chatroom_  
>  **Zen:** They’re such interesting girls ^^  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** They are indeed. And polar opposites too  
>  **Zen:** It seems so, doesn’t it?  
>  **Zen:** I wonder how exactly they met each other   
> **Jaehee Kang:** I wonder as well  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** Luciel have you found anything more about the hacker?  
>  **707:** uh  
>  **707:** no  
>  **707:** Barely anything  
>  **Zen:** What have you found?  
>  **707:** small activity everywhere and an attempt at breaching my server  
>  **707:** but it’s all fine and otherwise untouched right now.  
>  **Jaehee Kang:** Make sure it stays that way.  
>  **707:** ya

______


	6. 1.5

**1.5**

The picture hadn’t disappeared. It was still sitting there once I’d returned to my room, looking just as out of place and making me even more uncomfortable than it had earlier. I stared at the image for a while, trying to figure out where it had come from. If it had been hanging up in one of my relative's houses or hidden in a scrapbook I’d gone through once or twice with my grandmother. There was a date on the back, written in long-handed, nearly illegible cursive, which didn’t do anything to help me pinpoint its origins other than confirming it was taken when I was five.

I sent a message to my grandmother, hoping she may be able to explain the picture’s misplacement. I wouldn’t get a response until tomorrow though, considering the fourteen-hour difference between South Korea and my hometown. All I could do until then was try to not agonize over the thing… Which meant it was getting shoved off in a corner where it could easily be forgotten about.

“Briar! Did you fall asleep? Shouldn’t we get going to C&R?” Aspen called, clamping heavily up the stairs.

“I’m up! Yeah! We should.” I called back, spinning in my desk chair to see her step into the room, her eyes immediately falling on the picture still stuck in my grasp.

“What’s that? Looks old.” She hung over my shoulder, examining the image. I heard her gasp quietly as she noticed the faces in it and my stomach twisted into anxious knots. “Where the hell did you get this? I thought we burned all the pictures with your mom?”

“We did,” I answered, handing the picture to her as she reached for it. “I have no idea where it came from, but it was in one of my boxes.”

She was silent for a long while, glaring at the image with as much confusion and fear as I had felt when I’d first seen it. “Who the hell would put this in your stuff?!”

I shrugged, “I sent a message to my grandma about it, maybe she’ll recognize it.” I stood up and gently pulled the thing from her hands. “We should get going, I’m sure Jumin and Jaehee are waiting on us by now.”

She was angry now, I could tell by the way she simply nodded her head in response and glared at the ground as she stepped down the stairs. Though I was thankful she was being empathetic about it and found it just as odd and disturbing as I did, I felt bad putting her in such a sour mood.

Maybe we could stop for a sweet on the way back, that would make her happy again.

 

Before leaving I made sure to put the picture somewhere out of the way where neither Aspen or I would stumble upon it. Under a pot in the storage closet seemed like a good enough spot, then I quickly followed after Aspen to the streets.

 

“Since when did these GPS apps get so bad!” Aspen shouted in English out of frustration, throwing her head back to shout at the cloudy sky. “I swear we’re just walking in circles at this point!”

“Maybe the address changed?” I asked, tugging her out of the way of a man rushing by on his cell phone. The business district was scary busy, even worse than the area near that club had been. It was almost hard to breathe in these crowds.

“What, did they move the whole building out of nowhere?” She laughed but the irritation was still clear in her voice. “I looked up C&R on google, that should have brought us right to the current building no matter what, right?”

I shrugged, “You’re the tech expert.” _And maybe if you were shouting in Korean instead of English someone would stop to help us out…_

Another loud groan escaped her and she pulled out her phone, “Maybe Jaehee knows directions.” She said, “I bet she can help, she’s so organized and smart.”

I chuckled, knowing the woman wouldn’t agree with that statement. I pulled out my own phone to pop open the app and jumped as the screen frizzed out, code flashing across again like the other night. I nearly thrust the thing at Aspen but the code cleared and the device vibrated, a message popping up.

> **Unknown:** Heading to C &R?  
>  **Unknown:** You’re going in the complete opposite direction if you are.

_The hacker again?_ How did he know? Was he listening to our conversation?

I glanced to Aspen to see she was completely oblivious to my sudden scare, too focused on her own phone and attempting to get a hold of Jaehee to notice.

> **Briar:** How do you know this?

_Why am I replying to them…?_ I should be telling Aspen and Seven about this, this person is dangerous…

Something in me didn’t agree with that though.

> **Unknown:** You and your damn questions.  
>  **Unknown:** I can track you’re phone… Have all of you open on a map right now actually.  
>  **Unknown:** And according to what that secretary said in the chatroom, you’re on your way to C &R right now.  
>  **Unknown:** Or at least you should be.  
>  **Briar:** …  
>  **Briar:** What’s it to you.  
>  **Unknown:** This city is dangerous, even in the business district.  
>  **Unknown:** Keep wandering aimlessly like that and you’ll end up in danger  
>  **Unknown:** so… Want some more accurate directions?

I looked up to Aspen again, suddenly aware of how hard my heart was pounding in my chest. I couldn’t trust this person at all, I wouldn’t doubt they’d try to lure us into something much worse than what the city could do to us. They had said something about ‘coming for me’ before.

Aspen shook her head, “I think Jaehee is busy. She hasn’t even seen the message. I’ll try Jumin now.”

I bit at my lip before tapping out another response.

> **Briar:** Why should I trust you?  
>  **Briar:** Aren’t you more dangerous than anything else right now?  
>  **Briar:** You have no reason to be helping us…  
>  **Unknown:** Have you forgotten already? I told you. I don’t lie. Sending you somewhere other than C &R would be a lie at this point.  
>  **Unknown:** And I want a favor in return.  
>  **Briar:** …Seriously. That’s how this is going to go?  
>  **Unknown:** ^^  
>  **Unknown:** Favor for a favor, Briar.  
>  **Unknown:** I want a question answered and I doubt you’ll even listen without an incentive.  
>  **Briar:** so you’re doing something for me to get something in return.  
>  **Unknown:** I suppose so.

For some reason, that logic made it more believable. Though I feared what question they wanted to ask if they were reaching out to me like this. The last favor exchange _had_ been genuine and their want to be honest… or rather simply not lie… had been enough to get them to answer my question.

_I’m absolutely insane for agreeing to this._

> **Briar:** …okay. Yes, directions would be nice.  
>  **Briar:** But the minute this gets shady, the deal is off.  
>  **Unknown:** sounds fair.  
>  **Unknown:** First off, you need to turn around. Walk straight for two blocks.  
>  **Briar:** …Then?  
>  **Unknown:** I will tell you when you get there.  
>  **Briar:** … Ok.

I sighed under my breath, “Aspen, I think I might have got some good directions. Follow me.” I said, passing her a smile that I hoped she wouldn’t see my hesitance through.

“Really! Awesome! Lead the way, O’ Navigator!” She grinned.

_How do you switch moods so fast, Aspen?_

I followed the hacker’s directions, walking two blocks and checking my phone repeatedly as we approached the next corner. My stomach kept twisting and knotting up even tighter, every step feeling like a mistake as the screen stayed dark. My anxious mind kept feeding me flashes of a mysterious person standing at the corner with a knife, or drugs, or anything that could incapacitate us.

A step away from the corner and the screen lit up.

> **Unknown:** Now take a right and walk one block.

“This way,” I said to Aspen and she skipped along next to me. Unaware of my tension.

> **Unknown:** left, two blocks from there.  
>  **Unknown:** It should be the tallest building on that block, on you’re left.

“Hey! Look! A huge C&R sign! This must be it then!” Aspen cheered, pointing ahead. She was right, a huge white sign with black, elegant typeface C&R sat on the corner ahead of a towering building that I struggled to see the top of through the dying sunlight. “Good job, Briar! Guess you found a good service!” She giggled and grinned happily at me.

The tension in my gut released and I looked back down to the phone.

> **Unknown:** Found it?  
>  **Briar:** yes… Thank you for the help.  
>  **Unknown:** I told you I wouldn’t lie! ^^  
>  **Briar:** So what’s this question you want answered so bad  
>  **Unknown:** Oh, that can wait, finish your business with those C &R drones first.

_I just want to know what the darn question is already._

 

Aspen took the lead as we entered the building, walking up to the front desk to tell the receptionist that Jaehee and Jumin were waiting for us. After the woman stared blankly at her for a painfully long minute I stepped up and told her we had a meeting with either Jaehee Kang or Mr. Jumin Han regarding a bag of candy. That seemed to spark something in the woman and she nodded with a friendly smile, calling one of the two about our arrival.

A moment later Jaehee appeared from an elevator, somehow looking even more exhausted and drained than she had a few hours earlier.

“Apologies for missing your message, Aspen. It seems you arrived here fairly easily, though?” She said as she guided us into the elevator and up to nearly the top floor of the building.

“Yeah, thanks to Briar,” Aspen said with a huge smile. “I guess she’s the new tech expert.”

_Tech expert… More like hacker’s puppet._

The laugh I responded with was strained. “No way, I just happened to find a good website.” I felt dirty lying, especially after that hacker had proven they weren’t one to ever stoop that low. What had Seven said about hackers before? That they were cockroaches? So was I less than a cockroach then?

I shook myself from the thought, realizing that the minute I’d spent spacing out had left me off of a new trail of conversation between Aspen and Jaehee.

I couldn’t have told the truth anyway. Aspen would freak out if she found out I’d been following directions from this person willingly, and Jaehee would probably think something bad of me. If I didn’t want to deal with those reactions, it was better to lie.

_Am I not protecting them then? So what if I followed some directions in a desperate time… The whole RFA is out for this person and I’m contacting them like their a friend._

_Stop thinking about this._

Jaehee lead us straight to Jumin’s office, a huge room with a full wall of windows looking out over the city. It was high enough above the rest of the buildings to grant a rather gorgeous view of the cityscape, with the coming sunset light casting warm red and purple hues across the gleaming buildings. The lights from below looking almost like stars. How could he focus on work at his desk when that view was right behind him?

_And I’m spacing out again._ Refocus.

“Welcome, both of you, it’s wonderful to meet you like this,” Jumin said. His voice was even more steady and deep in person than it was over the phone. “I thank you for going out of your way to bring me what I was looking for.”

“No problem!” Aspen said, “But why did you want sour patch kids so bad? They’re good, but I doubt their worth fussing over.”

Jumin stayed silent for a moment, looking between both of us with this cool, calculating gaze that made me shiver. Then a tiny smirk cracked across his face and he said, “To be completely honest with you, I sent my assistant off to find those candies to get her out of my hair for a few minutes.”

“Excuse me!” Jaehee said in a shocked tone before slapping a hand over her mouth and looking, irritated, at the ground.

“It is nothing to take personal Assistant Kang. I was simply tired of you pestering me about that meeting with my father.” Jumin replied evenly.

She sighed heavily, and spoke in a murmur “I’m tired of him pestering me about it as well, though.”

“What was that?” He asked, “I didn’t hear you, Ms. Kang.”

“Nothing sir, I apologize for pestering you.” She said.

Aspen burst out laughing, shaking her head back and forth before pulling the bag of candy from her backpack. “Do you still want this then?” She asked through the giggles.

“Absolutely. Thank you for hand delivering it to me, Ms. Morrow.” He accepted the candy from her and investigated the bag, “We haven’t settled on proper repayment yet, what would you like? I’m willing to do much more for members of the RFA than I would for anyone else.”

“Uhm.” Aspen looked to me, a helpless expression across her face. “Is there something you wanted, Briar? Because I can’t think of anything specific.”

Why peg it on me? I didn’t feel comfortable asking Jumin for anything, not even his attention in the chatrooms. “It’s really not worth repayment. We have nearly six more bags of this candy back in our apartment at the moment. I’m kind of thankful you wanted to take one.” I laughed. “We don’t need all of it.”

His gaze fell to me, “I can’t simply take something from you, though. It’s very rude, and I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing so.”

_But it’s just candy…_

“Aspen, didn’t you say you wanted to see his cat,” Jaehee suggested.

Her face lit up at the statement and she hopped in place. “Oh! Oh yeah! Can I please see Elizabeth! That would be far more than enough repayment!!”

I bit back a laugh as Jumin’s face fell to a very stern, stoic expression. “You want to see my Elizabeth as repayment for this?”

“Yes! Oh, yes!” She grinned, oozing enthusiasm that was intoxicatingly sweet.

He hummed, considering the request. “I hesitate for one reason alone.” He said.

Aspen’s energy dropped suddenly with that statement, “What’s the one reason?”

He sighed, “You remind me so much of that cat abuser that I worry you will treat her similarly.”

“The… cat abuser…?” Aspen parroted.

“He’s talking about Seven.” I said with a smirk.

Her mouth shaped into an ‘o’ and her face went red. _There’s that blush again!_ “U-uh. I mean, I’m not him though. I-I…”

“She had a cat for most of her childhood actually.” I piped in and Aspen looked to me thankfully with a completely red face and wide puppy dog eyes. “A sweet yellow cat named Buttercup. She knows how to care for cats, there’s really nothing to worry about. I can promise you that.”

“Hmm… Is this true?” He said, looking to my totally embarrassed friend.

She nodded, “Yes, she passed away recently. So I would really like to see another cat. I think it would fill this void that’s been sitting in my heart since then.”

I think we all felt a spear of despair go through our hearts with that comment and Jumin stood up almost immediately, instructing Jaehee to watch over the office while he was away. He directed us to follow him and the excitement returned to Aspen’s finally normally colored face.

“Thank you for the save!” She whispered to me as we trailed behind the surprisingly tall man.

“No problem… But I think you owe me an explanation after that blushing mess that just happened back there.” I said with hard, pressing glare on her.

Pink colored her cheeks. “Ah… Uhm… Yeah, sure. Later.”

 

Jumin was a totally different person while with his cat, and I was shocked by the sudden change. He smiled so much more, and spoke much softer and less professionally with her around. He wasn’t bothered at all when Aspen tried to play with her in a more rough manner than what was normal. While she was distracted by the sweet, white fluff ball Jumin explained that he could see her love for cats when she talked about Buttercup. He trusted her with the animal more since she had experience and believed the play would make Elizabeth happy.

It was honestly adorable to see how much such a powerful man loved the animal.

I got a turn with her as well as Aspen snapped endless amounts of pictures and cooed over how adorable she was. Her fur was unbelievably soft, and she was very vocal – meowing nearly every time anyone said something.

Adorable, and distracting enough that I completely forgot what was waiting for me as I stepped outside of the C&R building with Aspen. Both of us giggling over how strange of an evening that was, and how we hadn’t expected Jumin to be the way he was at all.

I’d figured my phone vibrating had just been a chatroom opening up, but as I pulled my phone out my heart dropped to my stomach to see the text once again.

> **Unknown:** finished then?

That was so fast. Like they were waiting there for the near hour that I was in the building.

> **Unknown:** It’s late now. Pretty dark huh?  
>  **Briar:** Yes, and yes it is.  
>  **Unknown:** Would you like directions home as well?  
>  **Briar:** seriously?  
>  **Unknown:** Why not. I have nothing better to do  
>  **Briar:** Are you testing my trust until you can use it to your advantage?  
>  **Unknown:** No. I can’t betray anyone like that.  
>  **Briar:** what is with your morals? There too prosocial considering what you did to the RFA. Or what you’re trying to do.  
>  **Unknown:** Directions?  
>  **Briar:** … Sure. I would appreciate it.

Wait… That means they know where we live. _Sheesh…_

 

Aspen relied on me to get back anyway, claiming she was going to do the same thing every time we went out together from now on. She trusted ‘my’ directions more than any of the crappy apps she’d been trying to use earlier… Meaning I’d actually have to find a good GPS service if I wanted to keep hiding this nasty secret from her. _Which I shouldn’t be._ But the hacker stayed true to their words, leading us the same way they had done with C &R, directions at every turn. Eventually, I was able to recognize the area and I nearly cursed myself for allowing that smidge of trust to fall into this stranger’s hands… but it had.

_…I have to keep my guard up._

I was only comfortable since I wasn’t alone. Aspen’s presence had always made me feel much safer than I really should at any given moment. If she weren’t right by my side there was no way I’d be listening to this person like this… _Right?_

“As much fun as that was, I’m glad to be in for the night,” Aspen said as she held the door to the first floor open for me, following as I stepped through. “It feels like it’s been such a long day.”

“That’s because we’ve barely gone out at all,” I said with yet another strained laugh. _Relax, you sound like a choking rat._

“Yeah, maybe we should go adventure more.” She grinned, bouncing into the elevator and pressing the button to head to our floor as I stepped in next to her. That’s when I noticed her phone clutched in her hand, screen open to a conversation with someone. I recognized the profile picture from the chatrooms.

“We do need to stop by the university campus.” I said, “We’re supposed to meet with our advisors before classes start up.”

“Oh right, I almost forgot.” She muttered, “It’s so weird that they’re making us go to campus for that. We’re online students.” She laughed, “We just happen to be living here as well.”

I shrugged, “I’m sure that’s why it’s kind of cool anyway.”

She hummed in agreement as the elevator doors popped open, her gaze drifting down to her phone as we walked to the apartment. I opened the door and put an arm in front of her before she could blindly walk in with her nose in her phone like that. I knew Unknown was waiting on me, despite the fact that they had yet to message me that question being strung over my head. But I couldn’t help my curiosity over Aspen’s blushing face throughout the day.

I wanted an answer now. “So, Seven?” I asked, having already realized that was the person she was messaging at the moment. It was the same person who had come up repeatedly throughout the day even though I hadn’t interacted with him at all myself.

The blush returned. “Yeah?”

“Is he the one distracting you?”

The blush grew redder. “How obvious is it?”

A laugh escaped me and I dropped my arm, allowing her to walk into the apartment and following after closing the door behind us. “I guess it’s pretty obvious. I’m still surprised though. You’ve never been interested in guys before.”'

She tossed herself over the arm of the couch, hitting the cushions with a loud flop and a heavy sigh. “I know… But he’s…”

I cut her off, taking a seat in the armchair. “Don’t say different or I’ll gag.” My phone buzzed in that erratic way that I was already starting to associate with Unknown.

> **Unknown:** have you finally settled for the day?  
>  **Unknown:** I’m waiting on my half of the deal then.  
>  **Unknown:** tell me when you’re free.

_I’m surprised by their patience._

Aspen was rubbing at her face. “I feel pathetic, Briar. I’ve only known this person for four days but he’s already filling so much of my headspace. Everywhere I go I think of him. Everything I do, I think of him.” She groaned. “What’s my problem?!”

“Are you sure it isn’t a friend crush? You’ve had those before.” I said, recalling the one other boy she’d felt similarly about. She’d been excited just meeting Seven, almost like she was star struck from meeting someone she’d heard about in her computer classes. I’d figured she was just excited to get to know someone with a reputable name.

“It’s not. It feels different this time.” She whined. “It’s in my heart too, not just my head.”

The pout she gave me and the look in her eyes was convincing. I’d never seen her like _this_ before. “Well… Is it a bad thing if you have a crush on him?” I questioned.

She was quiet for a moment, “It’s not pathetic? To like someone you’ve only known for such a short amount of time?”

She had a point, that was odd and felt wrong in some way… But my grandmother had always said that stuff like this would happen when it was least expected and that no love was the same as the next. Not to say she was already at the state she should be using that word specifically, but she was certainly heading that way by the looks of it. From my point of view, I didn’t see any problems with it. He was friendly and kept up with her goofiness shockingly well, something no one else I knew had been able to do.

“I don’t think it’s pathetic.” I said, “Sometimes it just happens like that.”

“I guess so.” She muttered. “What should I do then?”

I laughed, surprised by how indecisive and uncomfortable she was with her emotions. “Ride it out? Maybe the feeling will grow, maybe it won't. Just don’t beat yourself up over it, there’s no reason too. I think you should accept whatever your heart is telling you.” _And I’m going to start paying more attention to both of you in the chatrooms… I can’t let him hurt her._

Her eyes stared blankly at the ceiling, “Okay.”

“You haven’t even met him yet, who knows, maybe you won’t like him as much once you see him,” I said with a small laugh.

That made her sit upright and pin me with a glare. “Why would you think that? I’m not so shallow that looks would make me dislike someone! I don’t care about that!”

“No, no! I’m not saying his looks will influence you! I mean maybe you won’t click as much as it seems you do through the chatrooms.”

“Oh.” She flopped back down.

“You never know,” I said with a shrug.

“True…” Another sigh, “Thank you, Briar. You’re the best person ever. And sorry for stealing the limelight when you have that damn picture to worry over too. We should really be talking about that. Not my petty feelings for some weird redhead in a chatroom.”

_The picture._ I’d forgotten about it again… and I would have preferred to leave it that way. “It’s okay. There’s nothing to say about that picture until my grandma responds anyway. And don’t call it petty, I just said not to beat yourself up over it.”

“Still.” She whined, “You must be so stressed about it.” Disregarding the second half of that.

My eyes drifted to those messages sitting on my screen. _Somehow, this is more concerning to me right now._ “I’m just going to ignore it until then. It’ll be fine.” It’s not like pictures could physically harm me, it was only a bit of a mental and psychological strain. Something that was apparently easy to be distracted from.

“As soon as she replies, we’re talking about it then,” Aspen said.

“Okay.”


	7. 1.6

**1.6**

My room finally felt comfortable with all the decorations up, and I settled onto the mattress happily once I was finally finished chatting with Aspen about her new found interest. My body was so exhausted from today that the bed felt heavenly soft despite being nothing more than a mattress on the floor. I let myself decompress and let go of the tension sitting on my shoulders before answering the surprisingly lax hacker.

> **Briar:** okay  
>  **Unknown:** That took a while  
>  **Briar:** yeah. What’s your question?  
>  **Unknown:** Hah, anxious?  
>  **Briar:** I thought you were the one anxious to ask the question?  
>  **Unknown:** It’s nothing more than curiosity.  
>  **Unknown:** Those lying, good for nothings were discussing you through text the other day. About your background checks.  
>  **Briar:** Who are you talking about  
>  **Unknown:** V and the person you call 707  
>  **Briar:** Oh?

What do they have against V and Seven specifically?

> **Unknown:** They were able to find plenty of information on that friend of yours. All the way back to her birth. But they weren’t able to find nearly anything about you before 16.  
>  **Briar:** … Oh. They didn’t say anything about that…

I was surprised the topic never came up again. After V and Seven gave Aspen and me the all clear I was confused, surprised… I’d settled on telling myself they felt content with what they had found of me and hadn’t bothered to investigate the missing pieces any further than that.

So that wasn’t the case then…

Why hadn’t they brought it up? I didn’t mind explaining if I had too. I felt shady if I didn’t explain… But there was no way I could ask or even bring it up now that I’d heard such information from a third party. It would only make me sound even shadier.

_I am shady though, I’m talking to the hacker and not telling them about it…_

> **Unknown:** No. They agreed to keep it between themselves.  
>  **Unknown:** Seems they trust you anyway ^^. How lucky.  
>  **Unknown:** I bet they’d cast you out in a heartbeat if you weren’t so closely entwined with the other girl.  
>  **Briar:** …. Where’s the question here.  
>  **Unknown:** I did my own check. You don’t even have a birth record.  
>  **Unknown:** Pretty suspicious.  
>  **Briar:** …okay?  
>  **Unknown:** What are you hiding, Briar? And how did you hide it so well that two hackers with such a background can’t find it? _  
> _

I should have known it would be a difficult question to answer. At least to someone like this, a complete stranger that had thrown my friend and I into a weird situation.

> **Briar:** …That’s a pretty personal question… and it’s two. You asked for one.  
>  **Unknown:** I basically did two favors for you. C &R and back.  
>  **Unknown:** you wouldn’t break a deal, right?  
>  **Briar:** …

I didn’t want too… I was scared of what could happen if I was the one lying to this person. They clearly had something against people like that, had to have some sort of history with betrayal if they were so sensitive about it.

> **Unknown:** How about this… There’s only a handful of reasons someone would go out of their way to bury their information like this.  
>  **Unknown:** Illegal or criminal activity, paranoia, or some sort of valid defense against something  
>  **Unknown:** Do you fall into any of these categories?

_No point in hiding it…_

> **Briar:** …Defense.  
>  **Briar:** It’s nothing criminal. At least on my part. Someone was trying to protect me from someone dangerous… A person from my childhood that would be crazy enough to go searching online for any record of where to find me.  
>  **Briar:** It wasn’t my choice to hide it. I didn’t understand what the person was even talking about when they were telling me about it. I just didn’t want to see that dangerous person anymore. And I still don’t. 

My hands were trembling by the time I’d finally finished typing out that message. I hated talking about this. I wished it was something I never had to speak about again, never even think about. But apparently even moving to another country couldn’t prevent the past from sneaking up on me in such strange ways. This was something I’d have to deal with for the rest of my life, there was nothing I could do to change it.

The RFA wouldn’t be the last group to want to do a thorough background check on me, and I highly doubted anyone else would be as accepting and relaxed as they were about such a vague report.

Was it even worth it to hide things like that? My mother was in prison and she had never really been that tech savvy. I bet with _her_ criminal records she’d struggle to find any help getting a hold of me…

…Unknown is taking a really long time to reply now. _I don’t like it._

> **Unknown:** …seems we have something in common then.

_What?_

> **Briar:** … really?  
>  **Unknown:** is that why you’re in Korea then?  
>  **Briar:** no… that whole mess is long over with.  
>  **Briar:** …but I guess it’s kind of relieving to be so far away.  
>  **Unknown:** It must be, I envy you for that.

_Wait, wait, wait…_ That was another question. So didn’t I get a free one now too then?

> **Briar:** Why do you envy me?  
>  **Unknown:** you erased your past so easily.  
>  **Unknown:** and could leave the country… not even to escape. You don’t even need to escape.  
>  **Unknown:** I haven’t escaped my past yet… I’m still stuck in it. I’m running circles around it daily.  
>  **Briar:** What? how?  
>  **Unknown:** no.  
>  **Unknown:** no no no no no  
>  **Unknown:** shut up shut up shut up  
>  **Briar:** okay, okay, sheesh  
>  **Unknown:** stupid, airhead, moron  
>  **Briar:** Rude?!  
>  **Unknown:** Not YOU  
>  **Unknown:** Ugh  
>  **Unknown:** What are you doing to me.  
>  **Briar:** I’m not doing anything to you. Are you calling yourself stupid??

They stopped replying, my hands still shook, my heart aching. _No, what? Why heart aching? I can’t empathize with a stranger!_ But… No one deserved to be trapped in something like what I had been stuck in. Nobody. Not even this hacker attacking a charity group’s servers.

…I’d opened up to them and gotten something of an opening up in return. That shared past, feeling endangered by someone from the past… Even though I didn’t know what their situation had been like, the possibility that it reminded them of their own troubles resulted in what felt like a connection.

_A connection with a stranger? I’m being ridiculous._

I was reflecting my own trauma onto this blank slate of a person. I couldn’t do that.

_But something feels so off about this… Since when did I stop trusting my gut instincts? Just because it’s a person behind an anonymous name I’m going to ignore my intuition?_

They’d said something about a superior before, a superior that was forcing them to do something they didn’t want to do. Who was to say they weren’t being forced into hacking the RFA servers too? Or worse. 

_And I’m totally stretching it._

_Why am I defending this person? Why am I still talking to them?!_

No, I knew the answer to that. I was drawn to the mystery of it all like a moth to a flame. A strange person behind a name like Unknown, asking me weird questions, dropping my best friend and me into a charity organization, acting oddly kind yet intimidating with strong positive morals. Someone that seemed to be struggling on their own at the moment based on these messages.

I wanted answers just as bad as everyone else in the RFA did…

> **Briar:** Mr. Hacker?  
>  **Unknown:** What?

_So you’re a guy._ I’d been trying my best to think of them in a gender-neutral way, I didn’t want to be biased towards the masculine stereotype of a computer expert. For some reason, that little bit of information was satisfying to me. I’d gotten something from him without him even realizing.

> **Unknown:** What? What? What?  
>  **Unknown:** Haven’t you done enough? Pulling my memories out of me like this  
>  **Unknown:** Go play with the RFA  
>  **Unknown:** It’s just like you said. I’m too dangerous. You’ll get hurt playing with me like this.

_Playing?_ What a weird way to put it.

> **Briar:** You’re the one who wanted to know about me. I’m sorry that my past reminded you of yours and made you feel so complicated.  
>  **Briar:** but we share something, don’t we? Why don’t we talk about it?  
>  **Briar:** Maybe I can help you  
>  **Unknown:** HELP ME?  
>  **Unknown:** H E L P ME??!  
>  **Unknown:** Bahahahaha, stop fucking messing with me.  
>  **Unknown:** you hated me just a few hours ago. I’m not going to let you manipulate me. You just want to get information for THEM.  
>  **Briar:** I don’t hate you. What reason do I have to hate you? I hardly know you.  
>  **Briar:** And I’m not looking for information for the RFA. I don’t want to manipulate anyone.  
>  **Briar:** I’m cursed to care for people I don’t even know.  
>  **Unknown:** Screw off.   
>  **Unknown:** Ugh. I’ve told you way too much  
>  **Unknown:** I’m such an airhead.

Right as I was typing out my response the screen glitched, freezing under my fingertips for a long moment before going completely black. A swear escaped my shivering lips and I tried desperately to reopen the app only to find it had all been erased. Just like every other time he’d messaged. All gone in the blink of an eye.

_I should have taken screenshots._

No, Seven and Aspen could find those so easily.

My heart was thundering in my chest, ringing loudly in my ears with deafening _thud, thud, thuds_. Adrenaline in my veins only made the feeling worse. It felt like I’d been playing with fire, and maybe in a way, I was. Trying to talk to the hacker that everyone was so fearful of. Hiding the fact that I was doing so from all of them…

So be it. Until I knew for sure what his intentions were with Aspen, the RFA, and myself, I wasn’t going to rat him out. I had too many doubts, questions, and concerns to give up these odd little conversations I was having.

_But do I really want to pick sides?_

It wasn’t necessarily picking sides… I didn’t want to think of it that way. I didn’t want to assume the worst about anybody, including Unknown.

_I can’t help but feel like I’m reaching into the dark, though… Like I’m trying desperately to make a friend out of someone who cannot be friendly. Do I just want to know someone from a similar background?_

I slammed back hard in the bed, reaching to turn off the floor lamp and try to turn my mind off for the night. I couldn’t think straight at such a late hour, my emotions would take over. I’d be able to think it through more logically and thoroughly tomorrow morning.

_I honestly hope he’s okay, that his situation isn’t anywhere near as bad as mine was…_


	8. 1.7

**1.7**

Where are they? Where did they go? I know I brought some! I wouldn’t leave without them!

_No, don’t take those things. They hurt so much. It won’t help anything._

I need them!

There were rushing rapids of anxious thoughts and toxic memories crashing through my skull, exploding through the wall I’d thought was far too strong to allow them passage. Every noise, every flash of light, every bit of sensory information resulted in some distant memory coming to the forefront of my mind. Voices I’d thought only existed in dreams, faces of people that no longer bore such looks or meaning assaulted my brain. Dead faces. Lying faces. Dangerous faces. What made that wall crack? Why was this happening? How could I let it happen? It was too much, way too much.

_Briar will help, she wants to help. Let her try._

No.

“Where the fuck are they,” I growled at the duffel bag, tossing clothes and other useless shit out of the way until my shaking hands finally wrapped around a cold bottle. Relief nearly knocked me off my feet as I pulled the orange vile from the fabric.

_Don't. Please._

Shut it already.

That voice was getting louder, so persistent. It had to stop. This would make it stop.

There were only three left… How many had The Savior told me to take while I was away? I couldn’t remember for the life of me. God dammit. It was more than one for sure, it had to be. If there’s only three left, and it’s not one pill at a time. Then it must be three. It wouldn’t end unevenly, that’d be stupid. Of course, clearly, it had to be three.

_No, no, no. None._

I quickly shook the rest of the things out, ignoring the way my hands shook and heart clenched as I tossed them in my mouth and swallowed dryly, that dusty metallic taste nearly making me gag. Waiting for the lump in my throat to pass and the drugs to take effect was agonizing. How hadn’t those scientists made something that worked faster yet? She’d wanted it perfected months ago and it was still the same giant pills that had been used since the start.

_How can the scientists get away with less than satisfactory work but you can’t?_

… I’d need more pills.

It was nearly midnight, I wouldn’t dare call The Savior so late. She’d be beyond upset with me if I did so… She wanted an update on the assignment soon anyway, I’d tell her I needed more of the medicine then and ask if there’d been any progress with a better method of distribution. This dosage should last until then…

The panic in my heart finally ceased, the room falling silent and the rampant thoughts fading away. I could breathe again, could think straight again.

If a report was due, then I needed to get more work done. She wouldn’t be happy with such minimal progress. I hadn’t found much information, all I’d gotten into was that red-head’s personal server where nothing particularly useful was stored. Meaningless conversations between him and the members and disgusting pictures that I wished to have wiped from my memory.

I had to stop being such a damn airhead and focus on work.

…But my arms went stiff as I opened the laptop…

A shout escaped me, my body jolting as a shock split through my skull – everything suddenly feeling hot and weak as though my bones had turned to glass. The room blurred and swayed, my balance fell off-kilter and by the time I could process what was happening once again I was on the floor, a dull ache lingering in my spine and the back of my head. Though it was night it felt like the sun was bearing right above me, roasting my body under its intense heat. My brain melting to mush.

_This is what you wanted._

Thousands of eyes were on me, I could feel them. Like daggers poking and prodding at every inch, looking for the weak spots. Pulling at them, destroying them, destroying me, until all that was left were those glass bones and the gelatinous mass of brain matter. The Savior’s voice rang in my skull.

‘You’re too weak, Saeran. You’ll ruin everything.’

I should be stronger than this. I’d been stronger than this. Why was the side effect so bad this time?

Had I been away too long?

_No._

It must have been that woman’s fault. That Briar.

_No._

That’s all that makes sense.

_She want’s to help you, you moron. You share something with her._

No. She’s knows nothing. She can’t help.

_You don’t know that unless you let her try._

_..._ Maybe..

The Savior’s voice rang again, like church bells. Something that should have been peaceful, but was ominous like a tolling funeral ring. Every single vowel shooting a thousand knives through my aching head.

‘You don’t deserve to make decisions on your own. All you can do to prove your worth is…’

Work.

 

 

______

 

> **V:** I apologize for being so distant, everyone  
>  **V:** But it appears I will be in town for a short while soon  
>  **707:** Ooh! You’ve finished your work abroad??  
>  **V:** Not… exactly…  
>  **V:** I’ve made no progress and fear I won’t be able too at the current time  
>  **V:** I will have to return  
>  **707:** Is something wrong?  
>  **Aspen:** Poor V T-T  
>  **V:** No, everything is alright. Thank you both for your concerns.  
>  **Aspen:** If you’ll be in town… then we should meet! ^^  
>  **Aspen:** I know Briar wants to!!  
>  **707:** OHH!  
>  **707:** Lets get EVERYONE together!  
>  **V:** That would be wonderful, Luciel. But it’s very difficult to find a time that works for everybody. We’re all such busy people.  
>  **707:** true  
>  **V:** But…  
>  **V:** I do think I could arrange time to meet with our new members.  
>  **V:** I’d like to know you two better  
>  **Aspen:** Awesome! We’re not too busy since school hasn’t started yet! So whenever your able should be fine!  
>  **707:** Where is Briar by the way?  
>  **707:** She hasn’t been on at all today  
>  **Aspen:** Oh…  
>  **Aspen:** She’s asleep  
>  **Aspen:** She had a pretty rough day today so I think she’s been to stressed to check the chatrooms T-T  
>  **V:** That is too bad  
>  **707:** What was so bad about today?  
>  **Aspen:** uhm. We found something that shouldn’t exist and it’s scaring her  
>  **V:** Shouldn’t exist?  
>  **Aspen:** ya  
>  **Aspen:** ancient memories that shouldn’t have been recovered this way ^^;  
>  **707:** Ancient… memories…  
>  **707:** Sounds like treasure o_o  
>  **Aspen:** It’s N O T lolol  
>  **Aspen:** I’m pretty upset about it too honestly  
>  **Aspen:** Maybe she’ll be around tomorrow tho! ^^  
>  **V:** I hope that is the case, and I hope whatever is bothering you two will come to an easy ending.  
>  **Aspen:** Wow thx V!  
>  **V:** Of course, I care for everyone in the RFA.  
>  **V:** Luciel, it seems no progress has been made with the hacker?  
>  **707:** T-T  
>  **707:** I’m sorry, V  
>  **707:** I’m trying  
>  **V:** I believe you  
>  **Aspen:** Do you want help, Seven?  
>  **Aspen:** I’m no expert but I could try!! ^^  
>  **707:** oh your offer makes me so happy Aspy  
>  **707:** But it would take you so long to understand how this app even runs T-T  
>  **V:** I think that you supporting Luciel the way you have been is a great help as is, Aspen.  
>  **707:** Ab-so-lute-ly!! ^^  
>  **Aspen:** oookie, if there’s anything I can ever do I will do it! Don’t even hesitate to ask!!  
>  **707:** okay c:  
>  **V:** Ho͘w ̵̷͢h͟av̵͞e̢̛ ̸̶̨th̶i͢n̷g̸͝͡s̕ ̴̛be͝e͏̡n̨͟ ͟o͝͠t̵h̢̕e͟͠r͡͝w̸͜͝į̵̢s͘͟e?̸͡  
>  **707:** What??  
>  **Aspen:** What’s happening?  
>  _V has left the chatroom_  
>  **707:** Uhm…  
>  **707:** I̧͟ t̨h͡i͡ņ͜k.͞҉͝..͝ ̵͝I̵̧͞ t̕h͝i͝nk ͘I ͟k͟͠n̴ơ̷w̸͝ ̷̢͝w̵̡҉h͢͟͝a͘t̕ş ̴w͝r̶̢͢o͠ng͝  
>  **Aspen:** Seven!! What is this?!  
>  **707:** H̛͝o͞l̶͝d̸̷͏̷͝ ̕҉͟҉o̴n̶͘͝͏̶.҉҉̨.͏҉.̴̨  
>  _707 has left the chatroom_  
>  **Aspen:** …  
>  **Aspen:** ???  
>  **Aspen:** Why isn’t my text doing that?!  
>  _Unknown has entered the chatroom_  
>  **Aspen:** WHAT  
>  **Aspen:** YOU!  
>  **Unknown:** t̵̸̢͡҉ȩ̵̴̨͟d̴͟͜_̕͡s̛͘͞o̷#̛̕͘͢*̴̢͟͡l̷̢̕҉o̕͟͞n̴̶͢g̢͟͝  
>  **Unknown:** !͟o̧͟͜͠u̵͘͞ŗ̧͞_̷̨#͡.̴n̴͘͟͢͞o̸̧̨͟t̛@̷̧̨/̛͏  
>  **Unknown:** %͝i̡̨̢̧k̵̴͜͟͝_̶̕͏͏ ̡͟h̡-̸̕͜$̸̡͟  
>  **Unknown:** …  
>  **Unknown:** you’re all corrupted.  
>  **Aspen:** Is that supposed to be a stupid joke??!  
>  **Aspen:** Cause you corrupted the text?  
>  **Aspen:** Oh WOW so IMPRESSIVE!  
>  **Aspen:** Stop messing with us you big IDIOT!  
>  **Unknown:** …  
>  _Aspen has left the chatroom_  
>  _Unknown has left the chatroom_
> 
> ______

 


	9. 1.8

**1.8**

“Briar!” I yelled up the staircase, purposely dragging out every syllable for as long as possible. I tried to give her as much time as possible before I rushed her with the news from last night, but it was nearly nine in the morning and I was tired of waiting. “Are you up yet?!”

No answer. I stomped my feet a bit before sighing as loud as possible and stepping heavily up the stairs, making sure I put all my weight on every single step so she could maybe, possibly realize I was coming… Like an ogre. _Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum… Here comes Aspen, ready to ruin your peaceful sleep, oh princess of the tower._

“Briar?” I called again, seeing she was still hidden beneath her comforter on that sad little mattress on the floor. She’d tried to save money by skipping on the mattress frame and the rest of the bed, but I would never understand why. It looked so uncomfortable. 

She groaned, “Huh? What?”

I laughed and crouched next to her. “Are you up?”

Another long groan. “No.”

“I think you are!” I sang, dropping out of my crouched position to sit on the ground. “Do I need to be an alarm clock? Would you prefer beeping sounds? Or rooster sounds this time?”

“Neither. You already are an alarm clock, Aspen.” She said, her voice all groggy and full of sleep. She pulled the blankets off just enough to expose her head and very exhausted looking face. “What’s going on?”

Another laugh escaped me. “Good morning sleepyhead! There were some serious… developments… in the RFA last night.” I pulled my phone out, showing her the screenshots I’d managed to take before being kicked out of the chatroom last night.

She stared at the screen for a long while before her eyes grew wide and she grabbed the phone from my hands, sitting up fast and looking beyond freaked out. “This was last night?” She asked, looking completely shocked.

I bobbed my head, “Around one in the morning or so.”

She stared at the screen again for a long while before muttering. “Unknown… That’s the hacker… Why did he… Why would he do this?”

 _Since when did you refer to them as a he?_ She was always so good about being gender neutral… It had to be because she was tired. “Because they’re a nasty, dirty, hacker.”

She frowned and handed me back my phone, “Did you really have to say all that stuff at the end? You probably just made hi-… them angrier.”

I huffed, “So what if they’re angry! They deserve to be!” I snapped and Briar recoiled almost immediately. I cringed as well and covered my mouth, passing her an apologetic look for being so aggressive. “I’m sorry, but they have the whole RFA all frazzled and now Seven is freaking out.”

She looked sadly at the floor before saying. “Yeah, I’m sure. I guess I was just worried they’d go after you specifically if you said things like that to them.”

“Let them!” I said, grinning. “I can take them on!” _Totally can’t… But I’m not about to let her know I’m freaked out too._ If she knew I was scared, then her fear would double itself over.

The frown redirected to me then, “Aspen…”

“What?” I answered earnestly, not liking the expression on her face at all. Something wasn’t sitting well in my gut, there was something very… _off_ about her right now. Not so much a fear, but a hesitance or reluctance or _something_ along those lines that hadn’t been there yesterday.

She sighed, “Nothing… Did you have to wake me up for this though? You couldn’t wait until I woke up on my own?” She laughed… Or at least attempted too, she was using her forced fake laugh that she always used when she was stressed out. _Is this because of the picture? We really need to take care of that today._

“I couldn’t wait anymore.” I replied, “Plus, I thought you wanted to go to the campus to meet with our advisors?”

“Wait, today?” Briar jumped again.

“Why not, the offices are open until four.”

“Crap.” She quickly threw her blankets off and stumbled to her feet. I held back the laughter at the sudden surge of energy. “Let me take a shower really quick, then we can go.”

“Don’t worry, we have plenty of time!”

“We should be there way before it’s time for them to leave though! I’ll be quick! Promise!” And with that, she quickly descended the stairs and shut the bathroom door behind her.

A chuckle left me and I flopped back onto the floor, gazing at the shadows dancing across the ceiling. Though Briar and I were only a few months apart in age, I couldn’t help but feel like a big sister at times, and the past week had felt that way more than any other time since… Since archaic times. The same times as that damn picture.

_I should do something to get her stress levels down…_

I hummed, peering around her room. I was jealous of her decorating skills, really should have left her responsible for the entire apartment rather than just her room and the living room. There were pretty succulents and flowers all over the place, plants with long vines spilling out of their hanging pots and nearly reaching the floor. String lights bordered the entire ceiling and pictures of her dad, grandma, me, and her dog hung everywhere on the walls. My room was dull in comparison, I’d have to work on that.

 _Oh well… Not right now_. I stood up fast and started down the stairs to make some breakfast for both of us.

 

It took nearly an hour of walking to get to campus, despite the fact that we only really lived about twenty minutes away. It was unbelievably busy on the streets and as efficiency focused as Korea was if a person wasn’t totally sure of what they were doing or where they were going – they were far from efficient. Briar used her fancy website, or app, or service, or whatever it is that she had used again and although the directions were top notch and totally accurate we still ended up stuck in crowds either moving against us or far too slowly.

We ended up having to part ways once reaching campus and the stress on Briar’s face made me feel terrible. I was starting to think it wasn’t just the picture that was bothering her this much. Sure, she was always a little timid when she had to take care of things alone – but not _this_ timid. Something else had to be happening… maybe she was worried about the hacker stuff. Maybe she was actually worried that me speaking up against them would put me in danger…

I didn’t have time to ask, I simply told her to meet up with me in the student center’s computer lab after she finished with her meeting and we split up. She wandered off towards the liberal arts half of the campus and I found my way to the building hosting all the technological and engineering related offices.

My mind wandered as I searched the department for the correct office, trying to think of anything I could do to help with this whole hacker ordeal. I was already upset that I couldn’t do something to help Seven, but now that Briar was so stressed about it I was feeling even more powerless. I’d always had some form of an answer for her, some kind of solution to her hardships… but between the hacker and the picture… I was feeling kind of lame.

Maybe there was a way I could open up some type of communication with the person, someway to message them and scare them away… Or at least get some information out of them that Seven could use.

…Too bad infiltration wasn’t my specialty.

 

The meeting didn’t last long. Apparently, all the advisor wanted to do was see me and talk about my plans for the year and post-grad. She was impressed at how well thought out my entire schedule was, both the past and future and claimed she hadn’t had any other advisees so passionate about organizing like that. I found that hard to believe considering how prestigious this university was, but my only frame of reference for Korean college students was Yoosung… And he was far from a model student.

The student center was actually a bit busier than I expected it to be for a Friday during the summer. I was surprised by the size as well, it was totally different from the one at my other school – a lot more amenities and food options. I felt tempted to send pictures to my friends back home just to make them feel jealous, but considering the fact that I wasn’t even going to be here physically… possibly ever… it seemed pointless. There were plenty of other awesome things I could rub in their faces. In fact, I should have sent them a picture from Jumin’s office yesterday. _Damn, how didn’t I think of that until now!_

Even the computer lab in the building was far superior to the one at my home school and that was supposedly one of our nicer places.

Briar was seated at a desk in the corner of the room, totally focused on her phone and oblivious to the world. I sang her name as I approached, laughing when she looked up fast and quickly shoved her phone into her jacket pocket. _So jittery…_

“How was your meeting? Mine was pretty damn pointless.” I said with a laugh.

“Yeah, mine wasn’t really worth the time either. She just talked about her grandkids the whole time.” She said with a shake of her head. “I don’t know if she even looked at my schedule beforehand.”

“How mega lame.” I groaned.

“Was there a reason you wanted to meet here specifically?” She asked, standing up and fixing the back of her dress. “It’s kind of a weird meeting spot.”

“Oh. Heh.” I could feel heat building in my cheeks and pure confusion came over her face. “I, uh, actually forgot to finish some of the paperwork for school? So I thought if I forced myself into a lab like this there was no way I wouldn’t get it done.”

Her eyes grew wide, “Aspen! How do you not have stuff completely done yet?!”

I shrugged, a sheepish grin stretching my lips. “Lazy?”

She sighed heavily. “Okay, well. Let’s get it done with then.” She waved to the room of computers and I apologized fast before quickly picking a spot for both of us.

“I’ll get it done so hyper, super, fast, you won’t even realize I did it!” I said as I plopped into a chair and quickly logged onto the computers. “I’m pretty sure it was just something I had to click a button for? Or electronically sign for? I don’t know, it wasn’t something huge. That’s why I ended up putting it off.” I laughed.

“Sounds about right for you,” Briar said with a laugh, taking a seat at the computer next to me. “Is that the real reason you wanted to come here today?”

I paused from typing at the keyboard to press a finger to my lip and hum for long enough to draw another laugh out of her. “No. I mostly wanted to get the meetings over and done with.”

Someone at a computer across from us stood up, “Did you guys forget to sign up for classes too?”

“Forget to… No?!” Briar said, her face going pale.

That’s when I looked up from my own screen and yelped as I saw a head of blonde hair, bangs pinned back with a purple barrette and an awkward smile. “Yoosung!” I shouted, bursting out laughing as he looked to me out of surprise. “I’m not even surprised you’re the one to forget signing up for classes! What a model student you are!”

“Hey!” He snapped, glaring for a moment before confusion fell across his face again. “How do you know my name?”

Briar opened her mouth to answer but I quickly cut her off. “Oh that’s simple to answer, we’re both wizards! Can’t you tell?” I waved my fingers in front of him. “Whoosh, now I know you're addicted to LOLOL too!” I sang.

Briar sighed again, “Aspen, what is with you today?”

“Aspen?!” Yoosung jumped, “Whoa! Are you two…?”

“Hehe, yeah.” I grinned. “Didn’t we figure out we’re technically going to the same university already? You shoulda’ realized that one faster.”

“She forgot to finish her paperwork, apparently. But how haven’t you signed up for classes yet?” Briar pushed and I quickly returned to my own work before she redirected her mom-like concerns my way. “Isn’t it hard to get the ones you want in time?”

“Typically, yeah.” He laughed hesitantly. “But it’s fine. I got help for that reason.”

“Help? Just to sign up for classes?” I asked, gaze still locked on my screen.

“Yeah? What? Is that bad?” Yoosung answered.

“No, she’s just being difficult.” Briar laughed.

“Oh ho, Yoosung, look at you making friends with two girls so easily.” Said some other maddeningly familiar voice that made my stomach churn. I looked up fast, realizing almost immediately why it was so damn familiar. “You said you couldn’t make any friends at school! What a lie.”

“Shut up, Seven.” Yoosung huffed.

Briar jumped, “Seven? What? No way?”

I grinned, “Four RFA members in two days?” I pulled on Briar’s arm, making her jump again. “Hey! We’ve met nearly everyone then right?! Just V now? That’s so crazy!!” _I never thought I’d meet Seven…_ “I didn’t think I’d meet anyone of you at all honestly.” I grinned to both Yoosung and Seven, hopeful that my sudden nervousness wasn’t too obvious.

 _After I just talked to Briar about my weird sudden feelings for this guy, he shows up._ My heart was pumping way too damn fast, my hands shaking to the point it was hard to scroll through the page I was on. I wasn’t one to focus on a persons looks at all, but dear god he was so much more attractive in person than in photos. I hadn’t realized how red his hair really was, it was distracting… and looked so fluffy and soft.

Seven’s mouth was agape, eyes wide. “You’re Aspen and Briar?!”

Briar nodded, “Yes, it’s nice to meet you Seven.”

A huge grin fell across his face, “The mysterious new members of the RFA live and in person, wow! What are you guys doing here?”

“What are _you_ doing here?” I asked, leaning back in my chair. There was no point in trying to focus when my nerves were splitting and my heart was in my throat.

“Helping little Yoosung.” He placed a hand on his head and Yoosung quickly threw it off with a snapped ‘hey!’. Seven chuckled. “He waited too long to get the classes he wanted and asked for my help… but…” He sighed dramatically. “I can’t hack the university servers for you, my boy. You’ll have to pick new ones yourself and be quicker next semester.”

“What? You said you could help!” Yoosung groaned.

“You could just email the professors about getting in, Yoosung.” I said with my own laugh, “Make up some sob story so they feel bad about you missing the deadlines and they’ll let you in in a heartbeat!”

“It’s not good to lie.” Briar murmured under her breath.

“Hey! Yeah! There ya go!” Seven boomed, “Just send ‘em an email!”

I don’t know what to say though?!” He whined back, taking a seat at the computer again. I could hear him clicking at the mouse frustratedly from here. “I bet they won’t believe me.”

“If you believe it yourself, then they’ll believe it too!” Seven cheered.

I stood up and leaned over the wall separating us. “Yeah! Come on Yoosung! All you have to do is believe!”

“I think I’ll need actual wizard magic for that…” He mumbled.

“I can do that!” I grinned and thrust my hands at him. “Foosh!” I dropped my hands across his computer screen and leaned into it. “Oh no.”

“Oh, what?” Yoosung said, shocked by how quickly I’d thrown myself at him.

“I think the magic ran out when I cast spells on you earlier,” I muttered in a disappointed sounding voice, trying to fake looking exhausted when it felt like my body was wired on nervous energy.

Seven cracked up, falling to a seat in the chair next to Yoosung. “Oh no! Wizard Aspen has lost all her energy! Whatever will you do now, Yoosung!” He said between the laughs.

Yoosung groaned, “You two are just as annoying in person as you are in the chatrooms.”

“Can’t keep up?” I grinned.

“No one else can.” Seven said with his own devious grin my way. _Ooh, my heart feels like a fluttering bird._

“Aspen, you should finish this paperwork. I thought it wouldn’t take long.” Briar called.

“Ah, right. Sorry.” I sat back in my seat. “I got distracted.”

“So-rry!” Seven sang.

Briar passed me this knowing smile, the look in her eyes making another blush rise to my cheeks and I quickly refocused on what I was doing at the computer before she could say anything about it.


	10. 1.9

**1.9**

We hung around the campus much longer than I had expected we would. Yoosung taking an ungodly long time to finish filling out his schedule for the next semester and Aspen and Seven acting like crazy nuts the entire time. There was no doubt they had clicked, I could practically see little rosebuds popping up between them and the hearts in their eyes.

He felt the same way, that was beyond obvious… and I didn’t know how to react.

Aspen was like my sister, I felt like I should have been doing something to make sure Seven wasn’t going to screw her over in the end… but I wasn’t sure what. I wanted to say I trusted the guy, but… with the way Unknown talked about him… I couldn’t bring myself to fully believe he was a great person. There had to be a reason he felt the way he did about Seven, I doubted he would hold such hostility against someone for no reason.

“How much longer until they start dating?” Yoosung whispered, making me jump and turn to face him. He laughed as I made eye contact. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

I laughed as well, “You can tell too?”

“Who can’t?” He shook his head. “It’s almost gross to see two people so happy like that.”

“Are you jealous?” I asked, knowing he’d expressed some wants for a relationship in the chatrooms.

His cheeks went pink, “Ah… a little I guess. But the whole RFA is desperate for love too.”

“Well, everyone will find it in their own way,” I answered. “It just might take some time.”

He sighed, “You’re so cool Briar, you know?”

_Cool? What?_  “Why would you think that?” I laughed, “I’m really not that interesting of a person.”

“You are though, you’re so calm and smart and nice. You actually remind me of Rika for those reasons. She was amazing at listening to and directing people when they weren’t feeling well. So good at talking too.”

I flinched at the name. Next to nothing had been said about the RFA’s founder, everyone seemed to avoid the topic like it was forbidden from the chatrooms. I knew it was partially because Rika was V’s fiancée and they wouldn’t want to bring up any negative feelings in the man… but it had left me beyond curious about how exactly she died and what she had been like.

“You knew Rika well, Yoosung?” I asked.

“Mhmm… She was my cousin. We were super close.”

“Can I… ask you about her then? Is that okay?” I questioned, leaning a bit closer to him to not catch either Aspen or Seven’s attention. I was sure they would just drag the conversation off topic all over again.

His head bobbed, “I guess so.”

“What happened?”

He glared at the computer screen. “Well, according to V she killed herself.”

I gasped, but he continued anyway.

“But I don’t believe it. The police never found any solid evidence proving that she had done it. They didn’t even find her actual body, but we still had a funeral for her anyway. And V never seemed that upset about it.” He took a breath. “And Rika was such a bright person, there’s no way she would make a choice like that. She cared for others and was always doing things to make people happy. She never talked about being depressed or anything and I refuse to believe that she wouldn’t tell me or V…”

_He’s doubting V… He’s the only one I’ve heard that feels that way towards him._ I wondered if this related to Unknown’s feelings towards the man as well. V had been pleasant enough to me when we chatted and I was convinced he was a wonderful person up until the moment I decided to consider Unknown’s words. _How could one man hide someone’s death though? And for so long? That seems unlikely… And cruel in so many ways. Everyone in this group cared for her so much…_

“Does anyone else think he’s lying about it? Or is it just you?” I asked, knowing it was an odd question but he didn’t seem phased by it whatsoever.

“No. No one else has taken a second to think about how suspicious it is!”

_That’s kind of odd too._ “That sounds very strange, I can see why you’d feel so complicated over it, Yoosung,” I said.

“Thank you for understanding. How do you feel about it?” He asked with these big, needing eyes and I knew he wanted me to agree with him…

I didn’t know how I felt about it… I didn’t know Rika or V or anyone in the RFA well enough to make a choice on what I believed about the woman’s death. I wanted more information about it. “I honestly don’t know. I don’t know anything about Rika aside from what you’ve told me. Obviously, I’ve never met her so there’s no way I could know whether V is lying or not.”

He looked down disappointedly. “True.”

“I think V sounds and looks like a very kind and respectable person, but I also believe in hearing all sides of a story before even attempting to find the answer to something like this. I wouldn’t say I don’t believe you, as crazy as it sounds, but I also can’t say I do believe you for sure. I just don’t know enough.”

“I don’t think V is as trustworthy as everyone thinks,” Yoosung said. “I know he’s keeping secrets from us. Everyone knows that…”

I hummed. “Don’t you think everyone has some type of secret to keep to themselves?” _Like me talking to Unknown, or about my past._

“I don’t!” He said earnestly, looking concerned. “I don’t believe in keeping secrets from people who are important to you, and everyone in the RFA is important to me. Even you and Aspen.”

I felt a rather ambiguous smile come across my lips. “Well, I’m jealous of how open you are then, Yoosung.”

He looked doubtful then, as though he was contemplating my trustworthiness with that comment. My heart skipped a beat and I swallowed the nervous lump in my throat. “What kind of stuff do you need to keep quiet about Briar? I thought you were being open with all of us too?”

I flinched, _way to go!_ “I don’t mean that I’m keeping things from you guys, I just mean in general.”

He frowned. “Okay?”

“I went through some really hard stuff when I was younger and tend to not tell others, it’s nothing extreme. I just prefer to keep it to myself and sometimes I wish I had the strength to just say it. That’s all.” I quickly said.

Thankfully, his face softened with that comment. I let go a breath of relief discretely. “Oh, well I think you should just say something if you want to say it!” He smiled.

“What?” Aspen’s voice said from over my shoulder and I looked back to her.

“Nothing… Don’t worry about it.” I said hesitantly.

Her gaze narrowed to something just short of a glare.

“Hey, guys! I don’t want to get back to work yet, so what do you think about grabbing a sweet?!” Seven said with a big smile.

The expression on Aspen’s face morphed into sudden excitement, “Oh! I want too! I want too! That sounds awesome!”

I laughed, “I’ll go.”

Yoosung answered as well, “Why not.”

 

> **Unknown:** you… you’re with them.  
>  **Unknown:** you’re with him

I wasn’t even surprised to feel that erratic buzz from my jacket the minute we left the university lot. He’d guided Aspen and me to campus this morning without much conversation in-between. He hadn’t even asked for anything in return, which I’d found odd. I was hopeful I’d get a window of opportunity to ask him about the chatroom last night, but when all he was messaging were blunt instructions I knew there was no point in even trying.

Maybe now I would get that chance… But there were more pressing concerns on my shoulders.

> **Briar:** We bumped into Seven and Yoosung at the university, yes  
>  **Unknown:** …  
>  **Unknown:** Why are they still with you?  
>  **Briar:** They want to get food together

I let myself fall to the back of the group, not so far behind that it was noticeable, but enough so that I didn’t risk someone peeking over my shoulder and seeing that green text on my screen. After the mess in the chatrooms, all three of them would recognize Unknown’s messages in a heartbeat.

> **Briar:** Why do you dislike Seven so much?  
>  **Unknown:** I didn’t say you could ask questions.  
>  **Briar:** You asked me a question first…  
>  **Unknown:** …  
>  **Unknown:** He’s a liar. He’s the worst type of person.  
>  **Unknown:** Briar, stay away from him.  
>  **Unknown:** He’ll corrupt you.

_Why is he telling me that?_ I was reading into those messages way too much, but it almost sounded like he was trying to protect me from Seven. Or protect me from facing the same problem he’d had with the guy.

_And didn’t he say we were all corrupted in those weird messages last night? Was I not included in that?_

> **Briar:** I would like to know why you think he is a liar and the worst type of person.  
>  **Unknown:** …  
>  **Unknown:** I don’t have to answer that  
>  **Briar:** You don’t. That’s why I didn’t phrase it as a question  
>  **Unknown:** …

“Briar! What could possibly be so important on your phone right now!” Aspen called, grabbing hold of my arm and pulling me up to walk between her and Seven. My heart jumped to my throat and I quickly locked my phone, thankful to see the screen go completely black before either of them could have possibly seen it.

“What kind of treat do you want?” She asked, adding a bounce to her step and jostling me more.

“I don’t know, I could go for anything,” I answered, looking to Seven and Yoosung. “What do you guys want?”

Seven hummed, “there are so many good treats around here. I don’t even know what one to pick. I want them all!”

“There’s a pretty good ice cream place around here.” Yoosung said, “They have tons of toppings and different flavors every day. It’s one of my favorite places to go when it’s hot out.”

“Ice cream! Hell yes! That sounds awesome!” Aspen said with a skip, finally letting go of my arm. She bounced ahead of everyone. “Which way?”

“I can lead!” Yoosung said happily, catching up with her.

“Do you like ice cream Briar?” Seven asked now that he was left with just me by his side.

I shrugged, “It’s okay. I’m more of a warm treat type of person, but ice cream is good too.” _I almost feel bad talking to him after what Unknown said…_

“Warm treats are the best too, but I think ice cream is my favorite. It’s so sweet it melts away all your other troubles. Like there’s some chemical in it that turns your brain off.” He laughed.

“I think warm treats do that for me. Like brownies right out of the oven, or a hot tea loaded with honey and sugar.” _He doesn’t seem bad at all._ _A trickster for sure… but nothing bad._ Maybe Unknown just felt that way because he was a hacker as well? _No this seems like so much more than that._ “I get what you mean about sweets being brain numbing though.”

“You must have too much on your mind then, just like me.” He sighed heavily, “Man. This break feels unreal, like a dream. I can’t believe I met Aspen and you.”

“We were both really shocked as well,” I said with a laugh, knowing Aspen was much more excited and shocked about seeing him. Her face had been almost comical when she noticed he was in the lab – pale everywhere but her cheeks which were rosy red and eyes as big as saucers. “But you’ve been swamped with work lately, haven’t you? I’m sorry it’s been so hard. I feel like it’s partially our fault that you’ve been pegged with all these tasks.”

“No! Don’t take the blame! You guys didn’t choose to get dumped on us…” He paused and gave me a suspicious side-eye. “Right?”

“Of course not!” I sputtered.

He chuckled, “Yeah I know. I’m just teasing you. But man, that hacker is really something. Had an insane battle with him last night and I don’t think I’ve ever been up against someone so good.”

“Really?” _With your fame, I find that really shocking._ Was Unknown really that good…? I guess if he’d hacked the app built by Seven then he had to be pretty dang skillful.

“Yeah. I should try to recruit him for my agency, I bet they’d be happy with me if I brought them a hacker even better then me.” He grinned, “Maybe I could get that new car I was checking out the other day.”

I laughed and shook my head.

“Here it is guys!” Yoosung called, bringing both our attention ahead of us to see him and Aspen gesturing wildly to the building with an obnoxious amount of laughter.

“Sweet!” Seven said and rushed for the door.

> **Unknown:** I need you.. to promise me something  
>  **Briar:** okay, let me hear it first please  
>  **Unknown:** Don’t tell them about me. Don’t tell them anything about me. Ever.  
>  **Briar:** I won’t. I haven’t said anything in the chatrooms up to this point, have I?  
>  **Unknown:** you haven’t.  
>  **Briar:** I promise you I won’t tell them anything unless someone is put in danger.  
>  **Unknown:** … ok  
>  **Briar:** Can you tell me something then?  
>  **Unknown:** …what is it  
>  **Briar:** Do you know and can tell me anything about Rika? I asked Yoosung about her, and he doesn’t believe she killed herself.  
>  **Unknown:** hahaha.  
>  **Unknown:** V is a liar and a fake. That Yoosung is the only one who took a second to think for himself.

_Oh my god…_

> **Briar:** So she is alive?  
>  **Unknown:** I didn’t say that.  
>  **Briar:** …If I’m to take your response as an answer to my question then how can I not assume she is alive.  
>  **Unknown:** …I don’t retract either statement.

“Hey.” Aspen stepped in front of me and I pocketed my phone once again. “Is something going on? You look sick…”

_Dang it._

“No, nothing is going on. I kind of have a headache, maybe that’s why I don’t look so well.” I said with a hopefully convincing smile. 

“Oh, I’m sorry. We can head home after this.” She pat my shoulder and matched my smile. “Maybe ice cream will make you feel better though! Come on! They have awesome flavors!”

She pulled me up to the counter and I glanced over the options before settling on something simple and placing an order. The others had already picked out a table so I grabbed my little dish of ice cream and silently took my seat, not wanting to interrupt their current conversation.

It was hard… wanting to pay attention to what they were talking about when I’d just found out something so… shocking. Something I absolutely could not talk to anybody other than Unknown about. So I let my gaze drift back to the phone screen while they were busy.

> **Unknown:** you made a promise… don’t say anything.  
>  **Briar:** So, beyond not telling anyone about you. I should keep what we talk about a secret as well? Is that what you mean?  
>  **Unknown:** ……yes.  
>  **Briar:** okay, I was planning on doing so anyway… And thank you for being honest with me  
>  **Unknown:** I always am.

“Did you set up a time to meet with V yet?” Seven said, the sound of the guy’s name breaking my attention and dragging it up to them. _Are we going to meet him?_

“Not yet.” Aspen said, “I haven’t heard from him.”

“We’re meeting with him?” I asked Aspen, the confusion painfully clear in my voice.

“Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you!” She said, “Sorry! It came up last night, I guess he’ll be in town for a while so I thought we should meet him.”

_I don’t know if I can look at him right now…_ No, I had to be mature about this. I couldn’t assume the worst about V either. As much as I, possibly stupidly, trusted Unknown’s words, he may not know the whole story either… or could be heavily biased against V.

So I pulled on a smile, “That’s awesome! I hope we can see him soon!”

“Does anyone know where he went?” Yoosung asked, “Don’t you think it’s weird he’s just coming back out of the blue?”

“No.” Seven said with a shrug.

Yoosung’s frustration built with Seven’s apathetic response. “If he’s the leader of the RFA, shouldn’t he be around more?”

“I don’t think so,” Aspen answered. “In all reality, it’s just a charity organization that only throws parties once in a while. I don’t see why the leader needs to be here all the time.”

“Agreed.” Seven said.

Yoosung turned to me, “What do you think Briar?”

_Of course you’d ask me…_ “Well, I think he doesn’t need to be here physically… but maybe he should be a bit more present in the chatrooms with what’s been happening lately.”

Seven raised his hand, making strange noises over the spoon of ice cream in his mouth. I waited patiently for him to sort himself out so he could speak. “He has been online a lot more recently! Everyone’s been logging in more since you two joined!”

“He should be on _more_ though,” Yoosung muttered grumpily.

“Well, anyway,” Aspen said, very uncomfortable with the turn the conversation had taken. I found myself questioning how tensions had risen so much in a short bit of time as well. “I liked your idea of getting everyone together, Seven. I think we should still try to do that!”

“Yeah!” He cheered.

> **Unknown:** Do you still trust the RFA?  
>  **Briar:** I think there is a reason V would tell them she killed herself when she did not… I doubt it’s a crucial enough reason considering how much it has hurt the members of the RFA… but I believe there is a reason and I will respect that.  
>  **Unknown:** You shouldn’t.  
>  **Briar:** I want to know more and it looks like you have a lot of answers.  
>  **Unknown:** They’re the real answers.  
>  **Briar:** How do you know these things?  
>  **Unknown:** …  
>  **Briar:** You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want too.  
>  **Unknown:** ……  
>  **Unknown:** How  
>  **Briar:** How what?  
>  **Unknown:** you…  
>  **Unknown:** ugh.

The screen froze and went black again. I bit back my groan of annoyance and shoved the phone away. Why did he vanish this time? Why did he have to take everything away with him every time too? It was getting frustrating, he could contact me but there was no way I could reach out to him. _I’m sure that’s how he wants it to be._

I shouldn’t have been getting upset about it anyway, this was expected considering the type of person I was talking too. I’d keep getting little bits of information out of him as we talked and eventually I’d figure out why he was hacking the messenger and what he wanted from Aspen and me. 

Maybe I’d find out more about this whole faked suicide thing as well.

_When did I become such a curious person…?_ Just about a week ago I would have never done something like this. I’d follow whatever Aspen did and believed.

_It’s because she isn’t as concerned about everything as I am._ That had to be it. She was just excited to talk to people. I was worried about why we had the chance to even talk to them. Maybe it was how we were raised, I was taught to question everything given to me out of fear of injury. She was taught to take what she wanted and leave the rest to capitalize on her gains.

_Very different ways of handling a situation._

“You are such a spacy person.” Seven said, something in the tone of voice alerting me to the fact that he was talking to me this time. I snapped my head up to see everyone looking at me and my chest tightened. “Did you hear anything?” He laughed, probably the only person who could make an accusation like that sound so lighthearted.

“I guess not. I’m sorry.” I said with a hesitant laugh.

Aspen dropped her arm around my shoulders. “Cut her some slack, she has a terrible headache right now.”

I bit at my lip. “What were you guys talking about?”

“A get-together!” Yoosung said excitedly. “We were thinking we could go to a karaoke bar with whoever is available!”

“Now?” I questioned.

“No, later on. So we can get at least try to get everyone else to meet up.” Aspen said, a bright smile on her face. “Wouldn’t that be awesome?”

“It would feel like an official welcoming for you two.” Seven said.

_Why not._ “That does sound fun!”

 

We assembled plans, using Seven as a reference for everyone’s schedules since he’d apparently spent an obnoxious amount of time analyzing everyone’s patterns. We settled on the best possible time of the week and day with that basis, then found places that were open during that time period with reservation options. I warned them if they brought up it was for an organization they would likely find ways to charge us more. So as Yoosung phoned the place he was careful to say it was a possibly large group of friends gathering.

While Yoosung was on the phone Seven got a call on his own cell and before even answering he yelped and grabbed the thing off the tabletop. “I gotta go! That’s boss!”

Aspen laughed, “Don’t work yourself to death, Seven! It was nice meeting you!”

He grinned, “Yeah, you too. Like a dream.”

Her face went red and she ducked her head to hide it.

“One of you three drop a message in the chatroom about this for me!” He called, “See ya!” And with that he was out the door, I watched him rush past the front windows – talking very quickly into the cell phone.

“Out in a flash,” I muttered.

“Right?” Aspen answered, surprising me. I thought I’d been too quiet for even her to hear. “I hope he doesn’t get in trouble for hanging out so long.”

“It should be fine, no workplace is so bad they don’t let you see friends every once in a while. Right?” I answered.

She hummed. “I hope not.”

“He says stuff about it being dangerous and unfair all the time,” Yoosung said after setting his phone down. “And the reservation is placed!”

“Yes!” Aspen cheered, throwing a fist to the air. “We can have a party in just about a week!”

“Hopefully everyone can come,” I added.

Yoosung laughed, “Yeah that’d be great.”

______

> **Zen:** Whaa?  
>  **Zen:** Karaoke?  
>  **Aspen:** HECK YEA KARAOKE!!  
>  **Briar:** The reservations are already in place. Yoosung, Seven, Aspen, and I are able to go. If anyone else is able too as well, that’d be great if you could come.  
>  **Zen:** lololol Briar  
>  **Zen:** You’re so responsible  
>  **Briar:** I’m only saying what should have been said since the start;;  
>  **Yoosung:** I woulda gotten to it!  
>  **Yoosung:** I’m just so excited! ^^  
>  **Aspen:** Me toooooo!!  
>  **Jumin Han:** Is this an RFA specific event?  
>  **Jumin Han:** As in, are we meeting for the purpose of RFA related reasons  
>  **Briar:** No, it’s meant to be a gathering just for fun  
>  **Aspen:** An official welcoming to us, as Seven said ^^  
>  **Briar:** …If that’s how you guys wanted to see it.  
>  **Zen:** The time doesn’t conflict with any of my rehearsal hours…  
>  **Zen:** So I can be there ^^  
>  **Jumin Han:** Can I bring Elizabeth?  
>  **Zen:** -__-  
>  **Zen:** You’re only saying that to ward me off, Jumin.  
>  **Jumin Han:** I am not  
>  **Jumin Han:** I believe Elizabeth would love to sing some karaoke  
>  **Aspen:** I bet she has the most gorgeous voice  <3  
>  **Jumin Han:** She most certainly does  
>  **Briar:** I don’t think non service animals are allowed at the bar, Jumin.  
>  **Jumin Han:** …I’m sure I could convince them  
>  **Zen:** Bug off, you’re not bringing that damn cat.  
>  _V has entered the chatroom_  
>  **Jumin Han:** Welcome V, wonderful to see you.  
>  **V:** Ah Hello Jumin  
>  **V:** It’s very busy in here this evening  
>  **Aspen:** V COME TO KARAOKE  
>  **Aspen:** IT’S GONNA BE SO FUNN  
>  **Briar:** Aspen relax;;  
>  **Aspen:** ^^  
>  **V:** Briar! It’s nice to see you as well. I heard you had a rough day yesterday. I hope things have cleared up for you?  
>  **Briar:** Oh uh… yeah, I’m alright. Thank you ^^  
>  **V:** That is good to hear.  
>  **V:** Now what is this about karaoke?  
>  **Zen:** Yoosung, Seven, Aspen, and Briar planned an event for us to get together  
>  **Zen:** They want to go to a karaoke bar as a welcoming event  
>  **V:** Well that sounds nice  
>  **Aspen:** You should come!!  
>  **V:** Ah… I will consider it.  
>  **Jumin Han:** It would be a great way to create new memories V.  
>  **Zen:** For once I agree with this guy.  
>  **Zen:** Didn’t you two and Rika go to those sorts of places together?  
>  **V:** We…did..  
>  **Aspen:** Ohh maybe you can tell us more about her then! ^^  
>  **V:** Um..  
>  **Jumin Han:** Maybe it’s better if we don’t discuss this at the moment  
>  **V:** No, its alright.  
>  **V:** I don’t want to avoid talking about Rika.  
>  **Yoosung:** Yeah you do!  
>  **Zen:** Yoosung.  
>  **Zen:** Don’t start  
>  **Yoosung:** hmph.  
>  **Briar:** Either way, it would be nice to have you there V. But don’t feel like you have to attend if it would only stress you out.  
>  **V:** I appreciate your understanding, Briar.  
>  **V:** You are very kind.  
>  **Aspen:** I’d still like to know more about her though…  
>  **Aspen:** I don’t want to force you or anything, V. But I feel like she was so important and Briar and I know nothing about her.  
>  **Yoosung:** I told Briar about her today  
>  **Aspen:** What??  
>  **Aspen:** When?  
>  **Yoosung:** When you were too busy with Seven to even notice we were alive hahaha  
>  **Aspen:** … T-T  
>  **Zen:** What?? You all saw each other today?  
>  **Zen:** Maaaan, why am I missing out on all these meet ups!  
>  **Aspen:** Because your too busy practicing? hehe  
>  **Briar:** I‘m open to hearing more about her though.  
>  **Jumin Han:** I think it’s best if we leave this alone for the time being.  
>  **Jumin Han:** We can talk about Rika more  
>  **Jumin Han:** But let’s not bother V with the burden of remembering someone so dear to him who has passed.  
>  **V:** It’s okay. Rika was…  
>  **V:** Bright, charitable, kind.  
>  **V:** She could convince anyone to do anything with just a few words.  
>  **V:** I think that’s all I can say.  
>  **Briar:** Thank you for sharing, V.  
>  **Aspen:** She sounds like she was a great person! ^^  
>  **Zen:** She was pretty great.

______

“So that was your grandma you were texting all day, right?” Aspen asked as soon as I set my dinner plate down. We’d holed up in the living room with a home cooked pizza to enjoy with a movie, something we’d done so often when we were younger that I was feeling a bit nostalgic and homesick after finishing my slice.

“No. I haven’t heard from her yet.” I answered without even thinking about it. She’d want to know who I really was talking too then. Maybe it would have been better to tell her it was my grandma… _but then I’d need an answer about that picture_. “I hope she replies soon… I really want to know if she has seen that picture.”

Aspen pouted, “Yeah, I do too. I can’t think of any reason it’d be stuffed in with your luggage.” Her focus returned to the movie but I could feel that she was still thinking about who I could have been messaging while we were with Yoosung and Seven. The way her mouth was set in a flat line, the distracted, deep look in her eyes. I’d already lied to her too many times today, I didn’t want to do it again…

So I changed the topic. “How excited were you to see Seven today?”

She flushed. “We clicked.”

_That’s really all you have to say about it?_ “I could tell.” I laughed, “It’s like you two were made for each other.”

A tiny smile pulled at the corner of her mouth and she finally looked towards me, “Yeah, it was nice talking with him in person. Beyond nice. It was amazing…” She paused, “Uh, I’m sorry if we annoyed you at all.”

“What?!” I jumped, sitting upright from my slouched position. “You didn’t annoy me!”

She frowned, “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely! Why do you think that?”

“You just looked so upset all day… I was worried you were mad that I was spending so much time talking with him.”

“No! Not at all. I promise.” I said fast, “I was thinking about so much stuff today, I guess my face isn’t so great at hiding my thoughts.” I laughed. “I’m sorry you felt that way. I want you to spend a lot of time with him, he makes you really happy.”

The blush grew hotter. “Okay.”

She looked back to the TV, eyes still distant. _I don’t like this._ I nestled back into my corner of the couch anyway and tried to refocus on the plot of this film, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care about it. I didn’t like action films as much as Aspen did, but I was normally able to find one piece of the plot that was interesting enough to follow along with. I was too distracted this time to find any piece that was worth my very divergent attention.

Why was V lying about his fiancée’s death? What reason did he have to cover that up?

And where is she? Does Unknown know?

He obviously knew something more if he knew she was still alive…

My attempts to get more questions answered had just led to more pressing questions.

“Briar,” Aspen said, gaze still locked on the screen. “If you weren’t texting your grandma. Then who were you texting?”

_There’s the question… Dang it._ “Uh, would you believe me if I said I was just scrolling through social media the whole time…?” I muttered sheepishly.

“You were? That’s not normal. I thought you didn’t like Facebook or anything else?” She asked, a worried crease in her brow. Though I couldn’t tell if she was worried because I was supposedly looking through social media or because I was lying…

“Well, it’s not been a normal week,” I said with a shrug. “My minds a mess and stupid facebook posts are oddly soothing.”

She laughed lightly, “I get that. I do the same thing sometimes. My aunt makes some pretty dumb posts and as annoying as they are, they’re really funny to read.” Some of the tension surrounding her eyes vanished with that comment, _so she accepted that…_

I felt relieved… but I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep lying to her like this. _I can’t tell her anything though, that would break my promise with Unknown._ It was so hard to keep things from her, she knew everything about me. She was the _only_ person who knew everything about me and I got so much comfort from that. It felt like I was betraying her to keep something so big and stressful a secret.

_This secret will help keep her safe and lead me to answers about this whole mess._ I just had to keep that in mind, then I wouldn’t feel so terrible every time I had to lie.

 

Once the movie was over Aspen volunteered to clean up the mess we’d made while making that pizza and take care of the dishes. I played stupid phone games while she was doing that, knowing I couldn’t focus on anything else yet even if I tried. My mind was still rushing through everything from the past week or so, over analyzing everything that had happened down to the minute detail.

“Do you mind if I put some music on while I wash stuff up?” Aspen asked, already pulling her phone out to connect to our Bluetooth speaker. “You can pick if you want, I just want something to listen too.”

“Go ahead.” I called back, “I don’t mind either, put on whatever you want.”

She groaned, “I was partially asking you because I don’t know what to play.”

I laughed, “I don’t either.”

A moment later electronic music started playing, an album she fell to whenever she was uncertain of what to play. I had no problem with it, it added to that nostalgic feeling we already had going for the night.

My phone buzzed in that tell-tale erratic way but didn’t stop after two. My heart slammed as I saw the dark phone call screen interrupt my game. The word ‘Unknown’ spelled out in white across the top. _Okay, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s him. It might be an unknown number…?_

No that came up as the plain number.

_So he’s calling then… Why is he calling me?!_

I swallowed the lump building in my throat and combatted my anxious hesitation by simply hitting the answer button, forcing me to take the call. “Hello?” Aspen span around from the sink, surprised to see my phone against my ear. I passed her an apologetic look before standing from the couch and starting for the complex hallway.

“Briar!” Snapped an ominously steady, low voice from the other end of the call. “What the hell were you doing in the chatrooms?! Talking to V like that!” That steadiness cracked at the end of each sentence, reaching an unexpectedly high note that made me shiver.

I quickly exited the apartment before replying. “What do you mean?”

“He’s just going to trick you! He’s going to hurt you!” He was talking so fast, I almost couldn’t understand the Korean. “You _know_ how toxic he is, I _told_ you how toxic he is! Stay away from him. You can’t treat him so nicely, he’ll just use you! He’s going to manipulate you!”

I tried to reply, immediately going for a name before realizing I didn’t have anything to call him by. I stumbled, making a stupid ‘uh’ noise over the line before quickly recovering. “Hey, hey. You have to slow down, I can barely understand what you’re saying. What about V?”

The sound he made was as humanly close to a growl as I could imagine and his voice shook with rage when he spoke. “He doesn’t deserve your kindness, don’t give it to him.”

“I thought if I was polite to him, he may open up about Rika. But I also refuse to treat him coldly. I’m going to continue acting this way, I don’t like treating others harshly for no reason.” I replied in a slow, even voice in hopes of trying to calm this guy’s nerves.

“You _have_ a reason to treat him harshly! He’s a liar! He-he-he…” He stopped, grumbling as something heavy banged from his side of the line. “Damn it.”

“Is everything okay?”

He was silent for a long moment. “I just dropped something. Ignore it.” _That sounds better…_ No rushing or hostility was present in his tone that time.

“Okay, good. I believe what you said about V, I trust your words, as stupid of a choice as that may be for me. But either way, I’m not going to get anywhere by being rude to anybody. I respect V, just like I said earlier.”

“Don’t respect him. It’s a mistake.” He snapped.

“I respect you. Any sane person would say that’s a mistake.” I said. “I believe in giving people full respect from the start rather than having them build it up over time.”

More long silence, “D-Don’t let him get to you. He’ll build you up, make you feel important and safe, and tear it all away. He’ll abandon you. Just like…” He paused again with another grumble.

I waited for a continuation but when it didn’t come I took a shot in the dark. “Just like… you? Did V do that to you?”

He shouted loudly out of aggravation and I flinched, _so much for being calm..._ “What the hell am I doing?!” He yelled, another bang – though this time I was certain he’d pounded on something. A desktop maybe. It had made a hollow-wooden sort of sound on impact. “Why the hell am I on the damn phone with _you?!_ ”

“I don’t know. I was wondering the same thing when I saw you were calling.” I said smoothly. “It seems like you were worried.”

“Worried?!” He laughed, the sound chilling and heartless. It ran my blood cold. “Worried about what? About _you?!_ ”

“Maybe,” I answered, suddenly aware of how breathless I felt.

“Why would I be… How could I be….” Another one of those odd growls and his next words came out in a barely intelligible mutter. “The pills should have stopped this.”

_Pills?? Was he doing drugs?!_ “What pills are you taking?” I asked.

Another shout, this one hitting a high that made me flinch once again. “How do you do this to me?! Why?!”

“What?! I don’t know what I’m doing to you! You don’t have to answer my questions if you don’t want to!” I said fast.

His voice dropped low and steady again. _He switches so fast…_ “Y-y-you… It’s like you’re a damn key. Everything comes out when I talk to you… I can’t control it… I shouldn’t do that. I can’t do that. She’ll be angry if she finds out.”

_She will be angry…?_ I wanted to ask who ‘she’ was, but knew that was stepping my bounds with the way he was acting right now. It had to be that superior he told me about the first night. “I promised you I wouldn’t tell anyone anything. You don’t have to worry about that, you’re free to say whatever you want to me and I will listen.”

“But why would I be telling you anything at _all?!_ ” He said, this sentence coming out in a high voice. _His vocal range is insane._ It was almost… scary.

“Maybe it’s because you trust me,” I suggested, trying to make it clear that I was only taking a guess with the words through my intonation.

Back to the even tone, this time sitting at a comfortable spot between the high pitched and low pitched voices. _Is this what you normally sound like then…?_ “Trust… you. You are the only one who....” A short chuckle. “Ah, I shouldn’t be thinking this way. I shouldn’t be talking to you at all.”

“You don’t have too… But…” I paused, making sure he was still listening to me and wasn’t planning on hanging up after saying that. It had sounded like something he was ready to end on like through the messages. “If V really did hurt you in that way… I’m so sorry, betrayal and being abandoned feel awful and no one deserves to be treated like that. My offer to help still stands. I want to understand, and I want to help you.”

Silence. “Why.” It came out as a statement, or rather like a command.

“Because… We share similar trauma, and I want to help you overcome it in a way that won’t hurt you or V or anyone else.”

“Y-you…” Long silence and I heard a muffled, annoyed sounding groan. “Why _shouldn’t_ it hurt him back. He _deserves_ it, look what he’s doing to the whole RFA! All those idiots are falling into the same damn trap! They’re all _brainwashed_ to believe his lies!” He was rising again, growing angrier with every word.

“Revenge won’t fix anything, it will only leave you feeling hollow inside,” I answered calmly.

“Bullshit.” He snapped, “They’ll all get what they deserve.”

_That_ was where the call ended, abruptly with loud static nearly blowing out my eardrums after the ending tone had sounded out. I yanked the phone away from my ear with a yelp and quickly closed out of everything on the screen.

I stood there, back against the cold wall of the hallway for a long moment, just breathing. Trying to get my heart rate under control and clear my fogged, rushing thoughts so I could think through what had just happened. I let loose a long sigh and slid down the wall to sit against it.

He’s so… angry… but there had been a time I was like that too. I’d been beyond angry at my mother just a few weeks after escaping her house, angry to the point that I would curse her to no end with friends and wish that she would just disappear. There was a chance Unknown was feeling that way because of what he had been through as well… or was going through. _That or he’s just a really angry person._

No… I didn’t believe that. As much as he’d yelled and snapped at me, there was a raw kindness behind his words and lost somewhere in the intent of that call. I hadn’t been wrong in assuming he was trying to protect me from Seven earlier, he had been… and that call had been him trying to protect me from V. He’d gone through something terrible at the hands of those two and was trying to prevent it from happening to me too.

That was kind, and selfless, even if it was buried under all his anger.

So then, that quick comment about pills… and what he said about making someone angry… and how conflicted he feels about talking to me. It almost seemed like he was dealing with the same stress I was in regards to our conversations – feeling like talking together was going against our allegiance to other parties.

That superior, the woman that would be angry if she found out we were talking… Who was she? What reason was she supervising him?

_And what drugs is he taking…?_ I shuddered. Why was he taking any drugs? From the sound of it, they weren’t anything _helpful_. He’d made it sound like… like the drugs should have stopped him from worrying about me. I couldn’t think of anything good that could have such an effect on a person.

A long, heavy sigh escaped me. _I’m even more worried for this guy now._

I slipped back inside quietly, making sure the door made no noise as I pulled it closed and locked it. I could hear the sink water running and dishes clattering, which meant Aspen was still busy cleaning up.

She was going to ask who was on the phone with me, and I really didn’t have a lie to give her for that one. So it was best if I just… avoided her. Avoided the topic the best I could in general. Maybe she’d forget by tomorrow morning… Maybe…

The music was still playing through the speakers, and I crept up the stairs, attempting to hit each creaky step in time with the beats of the song. I felt pathetic, stupid, and dirty avoiding her like that… _but oh well._

I made it to my room without her noticing, thankfully, and went to my desk. I was going to try to find what type of drug Unknown was taking with that tiny bit of information I’d received over the call.

 

______

> **Aspen:** Hey Seven…?  
>  **707:** Yes??  
>  **707:** Why the text? Don’t you wanna talk in the chatroom?  
>  **Aspen:** No, I don’t want the others to see this…  
>  **707:** Ooh  
>  **707:** Is this about our private mission?  
>  **Aspen:** yes.  
>  **Aspen:** Briar… she’s avoiding me. And not telling me everything  
>  **707:** …So there is something going on then…  
>  **Aspen:** I think so T-T  
>  **707:** Hmm, I’ll keep watching her activity  
>  **Aspen:** You really can’t see what she’s been doing all day? She told me it was social media but I swear she was texting someone. And she definitely was just on the phone with someone.  
>  **707:** I cant. And you’re sure this isn’t just a friend of hers?  
>  **Aspen:** She would tell me if it was, Seven. This isn’t like her.  
>  **707:** Righty-o  
>  **707:** We’ll figure it out, Aspy~!  
>  **Aspen:** I hope so… and I hope she isn’t too mad about us trying to find out what she’s up too. She’s gonna think I don’t trust her…  
>  **707:** Hey, you’re just a concerned friend. Isn’t that a good thing?  
>  **Aspen:** I suppose so… Thank you Seven.  
>  **707:** ^^

______


	11. 1.10

**1.10**

A few fairly uneventful days past by in the blink of an eye. The hacker had fallen silent in regards to both attacks on the messenger and talking with me. The sudden quiet bothered me, after two days of talking so frequently I was feeling a little odd without the stress of his messages looming over me. 

The RFA had grown a bit quieter as well. The fear from Unknown’s sudden attack and strange corrupted messages had faded with his unexpected break and conversations became rather normal. Zen talked about his rehearsals nearly daily, and Yoosung shared his stress over the coming semester just as often. Jumin was his usual self, and Jaehee spent a good amount of time fangirling over the coming Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde performance. V was logging in more frequently, to everyone’s surprise, and delight and had yet to settle on a time to meet with Aspen and me yet.

Seven was the only one that was acting very strange in comparison to how he had been the past week. He’d grown distant and almost cold, rarely joking around with Aspen and spending much more time with his work and protecting the messenger. I wasn’t sure what had caused the change but it was bothering Aspen quite a bit, dragging her mood down to match his somber tones at times. It had to be stress, and Aspen told me that whenever she did get a hold of him for longer than a few minutes he’d expressed a lot of stress with work.

Hopefully, that would clear up fast. I wanted both of them to be bright and happy again. The chatroom felt too quiet and sad without their constant goofing off and prank wars.

To get Aspen out of her Seven-induced-moods I invited her to go sight-seeing around Seoul. We hit most of the typical tourist attractions and visited a few other places that the RFA had recommended to us. She’d been confused as to why I wasn’t using that ‘app’ again when we had traveled by foot but hadn’t pestered me much about it beyond that, thankfully. I didn’t want to rely on Unknown’s directions but they were far more reliable than anything we could find online.

When we weren’t out being tourists or wandering the city, we were either playing video games together or finding other ways to occupy ourselves. Aspen spent a lot of time at her computer doing… well, I had no idea, something with code for sure… and I had worked through nearly my entire collection of books I’d brought with me.

It was safe to say we were both ready for classes to start up already. At least then we’d have work to keep us busy for part of the day.

 

The sun was just starting to set, a warm orange light flooding in through the huge windows in the living room. It cast just the right amount of light across the final pages of the novel I’d been working through today. I set the book down as I finished, and glanced around the room to see Aspen had migrated to her own room at some point while I was reading. I could hear the clicking of her keyboard from here, so clearly she’d found something to keep her occupied.

I stood from the couch, wandered to the kitchen to grab a bottled tea from the fridge, then wandered back over to look out the windows. I was getting stir crazy, the boredom of our monotonous activities finally seeping in. Hopefully, time would fly until that karaoke night came around and we could spend some time with our friend’s again. Maybe Seven would be feeling better by then and both him and Aspen would be their usual selves.

_Ah, I need to get out for a while._

“Aspen!” I called, snagging my bag off the back of one of the bar stools near the kitchen counter. “I’m going to head out for a bit.” It was pretty late, it’d probably be cold by the time I started heading back home so I grabbed a jacket as well. 

“What? Where are you going?” She called back, I heard the plastic like rustle of her headset as she pulled it off and set it on the desktop. A moment later she appeared in the doorway to her room, looking disoriented. “Do you want me to come with?”

“I think I’m going to look for a nearby bookstore or a coffee shop or something. You don’t have to come with if you don’t want too.” I said with a shrug, “I want to get out for a bit and I burned through nearly all of my reading material already anyway.”

“Already? Didn’t you bring a ton of books with you?” She laughed.

“Not enough, apparently.”

“Ah, well…” She glanced back to her room. “I’m actually playing a game with Yoosung right now, so… I guess I’ll pass?” She said hesitantly. “You sure you’re okay with going out alone?”

I nodded, “I think I know our area enough to recognize it and get home now. If not… I’ll use an app.” _I shouldn’t be so dependent on you anyway._ I’d wanted to grow bolder when I came to this city, I should be able to walk around by myself without feeling anxious about it.

She frowned. “Okay, if you need anything just shoot me a call. I promise I’ll be watching my phone!” She was impossible to reach while gaming, so hopefully, that really meant she wouldn’t get so sucked into the screen that she couldn’t see my calls.

“Sounds good, tell Yoosung I said hi!” I smiled.

“Will do! Be safe!” She vanished back into her room again as I took my leave.

 

There was a cute little book and tea shop in the next district over, not too far of a walk if I wasn’t wandering aimlessly like I had been beforehand. Maybe twenty minutes from the apartment by foot, rather than the thirty or forty I’d spent walking around. I found some interesting sounding thriller novel that was sure to keep me busy for a long while and picked one of the big cozy chairs in the corner of the shop to relax.

A simple change of scenery like that was nice, even though I was doing the same activity. I felt better being out of the apartment and around people other than just Aspen. As much as I loved her, it got tiring and boring once we ran out of things to talk about. I’m sure she appreciated some alone time as well.

I flipped through the book a bit, getting a vague idea of what I was in for with a thriller like this. Then tuned into some of the passing conversations of the other customers. With how hectic things had been with the RFA, it was almost odd to hear about simple concerns like bills or what to have for dinner the next day.

We were definitely having quite the experience here. Nothing like I had expected when choosing to study in Seoul.

The light had started to die off outside, the glow of the neon street signs and advertisement boards providing most of the lighting through the windows. It was probably time to head back to the apartment. I could handle wandering alone during the day, but wandering alone during the night would never be something I was comfortable with.

I bought the book, shoved it into my bag, and started for home. I tried to soothe the coming nerves of the dark shadows by looking at the already dark sky for the stars… but none were visible with all the smog and light pollution.

_Well, there’s something to miss about home._ It was weird not seeing any stars in the sky. They’d been so plentiful and clear back home, an ever-present sight of the night that I’d taken for granted without even realizing it. It felt lonely without the little lights all over the place.

A sudden shiver rattled up my spine and the hairs at the back of my neck stood on end. I rubbed the goosebumps timidly, _what is this for… it’s not cold_. No… It felt like someone was watching me, that’s what this nervous feeling was. _I’m crazy, there are tons of people all over the place. It’s fine._

I tried to shake the feeling off but that shiver kept wracking my nerves until my heart started to beat faster too. I tried to fight the impulse to glance over my shoulder, but I just couldn’t stand it after a few minutes of anxiety bubbling up in my stomach… A quick look and… well, of course, there were a couple of people behind me. Two or three not distracted by their phones or conversations with other people…

My eyes locked with some bulky looking dude and my mouth went dry, the back of my throat aching. _Okay, okay… he’s watching me. That guy is definitely staring at me._

I looked ahead, focused on the route home and tried to calm my racing heart. _Maybe he’s just an observant person! He’s probably looking at everyone… or he noticed me looking at him and just happened to make eye contact._ It’s fine, I’m sure it’s fine. Stuff like that happened all the time…

The ache in my stomach said otherwise.

Glance over again… He was still watching. _Oh_ _god, now he’s closer._

_Relax, relax._ Okay, I’m freaking myself out too much. There were ways to figure out if he was following me. I’d take a couple turns off route, walk a zigzag through the blocks or circle the block once or twice. That would make it beyond obvious if he was following me even in these crowds.

If that didn’t work then I could call someone, that was the best solution to something like this. Right? People didn’t attack people in a call, the person on the other side of the phone would know immediately if something happened.

_Okay, I'll do a circle around the block first since that would be the easiest way to tell._ I took the first turn I could, trying to not make it too obvious that I was watching this person behind me as I did so. He had turned as well and my heart crashed in my chest hard enough that it actually ached. _Deep breath._ It still doesn’t mean anything.

Another turn, this time it was a bit more obvious I was either walking in a circle or heading back the way I’d come. I made it more obvious that I was watching the guy, maybe he wouldn’t attack someone totally aware of their presence. _I’m assuming he’s going to attack me, that’s going to do nothing for my anxiety._

…He’d turned too, and was totally fine with the direct eye contact. _Dear god no._

_One more corner before it’s officially weird._ I sped up, glaring back at the guy despite my fears as I took the corner quickly.

He’s following. He’s totally following me.

I pulled out my phone and dialed Aspen as quickly as possible, the word ‘please’ leaving my lips in frantic whispers as it rang. I could already tell when she hadn’t picked up by the third ring that she wasn’t going to answer and, as expected, it went to voicemail. _Dang it, you said you were watching your phone!_ I tried again but got the same result.

Last corner, and of course the guy followed. _Just my luck. I go out alone once and some creepy guy chases me._ Was I cursed to deal with these sorts of situations as often as possible? It sure seemed like it.

My phone buzzed and I glanced down so fast, figuring it had to be Aspen… but…

> **Unknown:** what are you doing??  
>  **Unknown:** you know you just walked a full circle around that block right?  
>  **Unknown:** you can’t be lost, you’re not far from your apartment.

_Unknown…_ Was that him behind me? He had said something about ‘coming to get me’ that first day. _That was over a week ago already, dang._ I couldn’t see him pulling something like this, though. Why would he follow me when he could just walk up and talk to me? Or call me?

It was stupidly relieving to see that green text though. I wasn’t alone. He’d been watching at least…

_And that should_ not _be comforting whatsoever._

> **Briar:** There’s some guy following me  
>  **Briar:** please. If that’s you. Just tell me. Please.  
>  **Unknown:** …I wouldn’t follow you around.  
>  **Unknown:** He’s probably heading in the same direction. Relax.

Relax? How the heck was I supposed to relax when some creepy guy had walked a full circle around the block behind me?!

> **Briar:** No, no, no he’s following me. I know he is! He walked around this whole block behind me.  
>  **Briar:** I can tell. This has happened before. This feels exactly the same.  
>  **Unknown:** …  
>  **Unknown:** What do you want me to do?

I groaned. What could he do? Talk on the phone? Sure. But would that be enough at this point? This guy was persistent, he had to know I was aware of his pursuit but wasn’t bothered by it at all. He probably wasn’t right in the head, either on drugs or drunk. It was a crowded street, a pretty stupid place for a criminal to make a move, with so many witnesses everywhere someone was bound to see what happened.

I should call someone in the RFA, like Zen. He could help. He was a pretty buff guy, he worked out and kept up his physique. He could totally ward this guy off…

> **Unknown:** Briar

No, no, wait. Zen was probably still in practice. The meetings were running later and later lately, even if he was close to being done he wouldn’t see my call until later on. Jumin? No, he was working… He probably wouldn’t see the call either… Seven is completely out of the question. Yoosung was playing games with Aspen, he was the _reason_ she was distracted and couldn’t answer my calls. Jaehee had to be working still too.

> **Unknown:** Briar. Stop walking circles.  
>  **Unknown:** Go straight at this street.

What good would that do?! I didn’t have any other ideas, and what harm was there in following what he said at this point. I could trust him… and if I ended up lost there was no way he would leave me stranded. _Hopefully, at least…_ _It’s been a while since he’s given directions… or even talked with me._ He wasn’t a liar, I couldn’t forget that.

So I followed his instruction, crossing the street and tossing glares over my shoulder as the guy followed as well. _I just want this to be over, please, please, stop following me._

> **Unknown:** Is he still there?  
>  **Briar:** Yes…  
>  **Unknown:** …  
>  **Unknown:** Take a left after the next street and walk straight.  
>  **Briar:** Where are you taking me?  
>  **Unknown:** Just do as I say.

Maybe there was a police station nearby or something like that. Whatever, I wouldn’t question him. I followed his instructions carefully but couldn’t help but notice the roads weren’t as busy. I wasn’t as safe when there weren’t another fifty to sixty people on the street.

I was nearing the end of the road he had told me to head too but hadn’t received any further texts. My heart thundered again, my hands were shaking so bad I couldn’t read his previous messages. _Come on_. I let myself slow down a bit, hoping he had just looked away for a split second or was typing out something…

A meaty hand clamped on my shoulder and my nerves split in half, I didn’t even have the chance to scream before I was shoved into an alleyway between two tall buildings. The shadows so dark that it looked like I’d been pushed into a void. My foot caught on what I think was a pile of broken down cardboard boxes and I lost my balance – I sailed to the ground, hard. My phone flying from my hands and skidding across concrete, the light of the screen going out and pitching the alleyway into an even greater darkness.

I barely managed to catch myself and gravel dug into my palms, stinging as I pushed myself up. _Can’t stay down, he’ll do something terrible if I’m down like this!_ Something hard hit my back and shoved me to the ground fast. My jaw slapped the concrete and stars danced in my vision, my teeth aching from the sudden jolt.

I forced myself to flip over despite the falter, my body running on pure adrenaline at this point. Once the stars had cleared from my eyes I could see the huge, bulky guy standing over me. Grinning evilly. His face cast over in creepy shadows from the streetlight nearby.

A knife glinted in the other hand.

_Holy shit._

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get a scream out. My lungs had completely failed me after that fall and I gasped desperately for air, trying to get any sort of noise out. He stood between me and the street, but I knew there had to be _someone_ close enough to hear my screams if I could _just get them out!_

His lips were moving, I could hear the deep rumble of his voice… but my mind was too far lost in panic mode to make any sense of the foreign language. It all sounded like gibberish but I could tell from the tone that he was pissed for whatever reason. _What does he want?! What do I do? Why the knife?!_

He bent down and I shrunk away, a whimper escaping me. _Seriously?! That’s what you do with the air in your lungs? Scream!_ He grabbed a fistful of the front of my shirt and yanked me onto my feet, pinning me to a wall before I could catch my balance.

More gibberish, a cold-eyed glare, his breath reeked of alcohol and smoke. _Scream, damn it!_ I forced my mouth open and the first note of a panicked shout left me… then he struck with the knife and the sound was cut short with a grunt. I scuttled away quickly, suddenly finding the strength to escape the massive guy’s grip. My arm stung, the wind blowing through a ripped hole in my jacket… the fabric already wet and sticky. _Why?!_

The man span, growling. “Bitch. I said shut up and stay still!” He spat at me.

_Why? Why? Why?_

I need to get away.

He was too large, I couldn’t duck around him and run, he’d be able to grab me before I could even get to the sidewalk. I didn’t know where the alley went either and with how dark it was I wouldn’t doubt I’d make a huge racket trying to head that way. He’d be able to follow me easily. Who was to say it wasn’t a dead end anyway.

“The fuck are you doing.” This came from someone else, a low, calm voice. _Oh please tell me someone is helping me._ “Are you crazy? You’re going to try attacking a girl in such a busy area?”

The huge guy fell back a step, just enough out of the way that light fell across the entrance to the alleyway and granted me a view of this person. He wore all black from head to toe, bleached white hair spilling from the hood. Even from here I could see how light his eyes were, they were almost glowing with the backlighting. A mask covered everything below that eerie gaze.

_Well, he doesn’t look much better than the guy with the knife._

“Wh-what do you know!” Snapped the assaulter, clearly intimidated by the new guy's appearance. “I’ll kill you too if you don’t get lost.” 

The guy in all black stepped forward. “Go ahead. I dare you.”

_What?! Are you crazy?! He has a knife!_

_What am I doing, I should run. This is my chance. They’re both distracted._

I pushed off the wall I was bracing myself against, but my legs wobbled underneath me, turned to jelly from the nerves. _Come on, stop being so weak!_

“G-g-get lost you, idiot!” Yelled the guy with the knife and he dove at the man in all black, lunging with that blade. I yelped and stumbled back, nearly covering my eyes… But the guy in all black had simply stepped out of his trajectory like it was nothing. _How is he so calm?!_

“If you leave now, and never go anywhere near this girl again, I won’t call the police on you.” Said the guy in black. “I suggest you take this opportunity now before you end up in jail for stalking and attempting to murder a tourist.”

The man with the knife sputtered stuff for a second before he turned and bolted down the dark alleyway, moving much faster than I thought was possible for a guy that large.

 

Relief surged through me and my legs gave out, I dropped to the ground and let go of a long, shaking breath. Warm tears trailed down my cheeks. _How could I be so weak in this situation…_ _I should have done something more. If that guy hadn’t come around…_

That guy. He was still here… I looked up fast, attempting to wipe the tears off my face but gravel and some other wet substance smeared everywhere with the movement. _Probably blood…_ My arm felt like a hellfire now that I wasn’t strung on adrenaline, _I hope I don’t need stitches_.

The guy scooped up my phone, brushing gravel off of it before handing it to me.

“Th-th-thank y-you.” I stumbled, somehow the screen hadn’t cracked in that fall.

“The hell are you doing out here alone.” The guy snapped, grabbing the arm that wasn’t holding my phone rather forcefully and pulling me onto my feet.

I stumbled again but managed to catch my balance.

“How many times did I tell you it’s dangerous here!”

My heart skipped a good ten beats, I met that cold gaze – pale blue eyes all wide and frantic with a mix of anger and fear. I played that sentence over in my head, the tone of voice so familiar now.

_No way._ “Y-y-you…” _I can’t ask if he’s the hacker, that’s stupid._ “U-Unkno-”

“You could have been killed, Briar!” He snapped, cutting off my words and grabbing my shoulders. His thumb pressing _right_ into the spot I’d been cut.

I yelped and quickly shoved his hand away, he recoiled just as fast – hand shaking. I could see the blood on his fingertips and his eyes went wide. “You’re bleeding… You… He got you?!”

I gingerly touched the wound, flinching as pain shot through my arm. The area around it was completely soaked in blood “Yes, I don’t know how bad it is.” I muttered.

“It’s bleeding like fucking crazy.” He snapped, growling that same growl that I’d heard over the phone. He yanked the mask off his face and took hold of my arm with much less force this time – tying the thing around the wound. I winced.

_Something about his face is familiar._ What is it? I know I’ve never seen him before. I would remember that hair and those eyes.

_What are you doing!? You’re not safe yet! This guy is insane! He’s a hacker! You need to get away!_

My body didn’t have the same reaction as my mind did. Maybe it was just the nerves wearing off, but I was fine. I was calm. _He did just save my life._

He let go of my arm and the streetlights provided just enough lighting for me to see all the blood on his hands. “This is bad.” He grumbled, eyes meeting mine again – concerned before narrowing into something almost accusing.

_Why can’t I say anything?!_ Aside from the frantic thoughts, my mind was blank. Too shocked to process anything.

“Briar.” He said evenly.

“What?” I answered far too quickly, giving away exactly how shocked I was.

He groaned, eyes rolling before he looped an arm through my non-injured one. “Just come with me and keep your mouth shut.”

 

We didn’t walk far. My mind was too jumbled and confused to really pay attention to how long or how for how many blocks he guided me, but it hadn’t felt long. It wasn’t until he’d pulled me into the back stairs of a hotel that my brain cleared just enough for me to realize what was happening, that’s when the anxiety came back and I spent the entire time ascending the staircase silently cursing at myself for letting this happen at all.

Sure, talking with him was stupid. But it wasn’t as dangerous as actually being with him. As _following him to a hotel_ was. _Am I really going to let this happen?_

As we reached the sixth floor I realized how hard his arm was shaking, how he anxiously toyed with the sleeve of my jacket as we walked. What reason did he have to be anxious? He was the scary one, the one completely in control of the situation. _And weren’t you just standing up to a guy with a knife in a back alley?! Why are you afraid now?_

I knew I could come up with an answer to that, but no matter how hard I tried to think through things logically the only response I could get from my mind was static or ‘holy shit’.  

We stopped and he pulled a card from his back pocket to slide in the little notch on the door. It clicked and he opened it, glancing back to me with that same mix of fear and anger in his eyes. He stepped out of my way and waved into the room, “Go ahead.”

_This is a terrible idea, but... he’s trustworthy, isn’t he?_ I swallowed hard in hopes of getting rid of that raw ache at the back of my throat and stepped through the doorway hesitantly. I walked past the bathroom to the main part of the room and stopped, looking around as he closed and locked the door behind him.

There wasn’t much stuff of his own in the room at all. A single duffel bag on the ground near the bed that was overflowing with clothes, a few random things sat on the side table. The desk was packed with high-tech looking equipment, important-looking papers, and a sleek black laptop – the screen open to that map he’d told me about before. I could see dots flashing all over the place, all the RFA members easily located. A shiver went down my spine. _What am I doing here?_

He shucked off his black leather jacket and tossed it at the desk chair before pulling open a drawer and grabbing a white box. I stared for a moment, heart thundering as he gestured towards the bathroom. “I don’t want to be charged with blood clean up, go sit on the counter please.”

“Okay.” I did as asked, feeling strange to have him at my heels. The light for the bathroom was already on and I quickly pushed myself up onto the cold countertop. The hum of the fan over the shower in conjunction with his presence was oddly calming. _This is bad, I should not be comfortable around him._

He helped me clean up the wound, the way he worked through everything making it clear he had experience handling injuries much worse than this one. He’d taken my jacket and hung it over the edge of the bathtub and nearly thrown a fit about the long sleeved shirt I wore underneath but hadn’t made me take that off for both our own comfort.

The cut wasn’t terrible, at least in the sense that it wasn’t bad enough to send me to the hospital. Unknown cleaned it up and wrapped it in gauze for me before grumbling about it being finished and stepping out of the bathroom a bit too quickly.

I unrolled my sleeve, glaring at the huge blood stains all over the fabric before following him out into the room. He’d dropped into the desk chair and started rubbing circles into his temples hard. I suddenly felt extremely awkward, _did he want me to leave now?_

“Uh, thank you for coming to help me,” I muttered, making him jump. “That guy… He was going to kill me, wasn’t he?” My voice cracked.

He flinched, “Y-you’re lucky you weren’t far from here. I wouldn’t have made it in time if you were just a block further away.” He’d made a lame attempt at injecting some acidity into that sentence, but he’d only made himself sound more concerned.

_I knew you were kind._

There was an armchair in the opposite corner from the desk and I took a seat in that quietly, looking down at my feet. “You were guiding me here, though, weren’t you?”

“Yes.” He answered coldly.

“Thank you again.” Something bright and orange in the trash can next to the chair caught my attention. I glanced up to see his eyes were still closed, his hands still pressed against his temples. _Am I really going to dig through his trash? That’s pretty pathetic._ But it was the only thing in there and I was pretty sure it was one of those prescription pill vials – which could give me answer to that pill question.

“Don’t walk around alone at night.” He grumbled. “Please don’t do that again.”

_Please? Does he really care about me that much…?_ “Is there a reason why you’re helping me like this? Did your superior say you had to keep me safe?” _If he was going to ‘come and get me’ wouldn’t that mean he would take me somewhere… like to wherever this superior was. Which I would assume means delivering me alive and healthy…_

Wow, when did my brain start working again.

“No! The Savior…” He growled and met my curious gaze with a glare, “Don’t start with your damn questions. I don’t want to deal with them.”

_Savior…_ Okay, that’s creepy. Made it sound like a cult. “I’m sorry, you don’t have to answer.” _Please tell me he isn’t a member of a cult._

“Damn right I don’t.” He grumbled, rubbing at his head even harder before groaning and standing up from the desk in a rather violent manner. He vanished into the bathroom, closing the door hard behind him. I heard the sink faucet turn on and water splashing.

_What’s wrong…?_ I glanced to the trash again, chest clenching as I saw the vial. Why not grab it now? While he’s in the other room. _Why am I hesitating? There’s no reason to feel bad about it._

I sucked in a breath and just grabbed it, checking for the label and immediately looking for a name – feeling way too excited to _finally_ get an actual name for him… but it wasn’t there. The line was blank… In fact, nearly everything on the label was blank. A weird eye motif took up most of the space, some strange tagline about an ‘endless party’ right below. I flipped it over to see the back label where an extremely tiny list of the ingredients was…

_No, just major ingredients. Not even all of them._

Mescaline… I recognized that… wasn’t that the name of the hallucinogen in peyote cactuses? Who the hell was making drugs out of peyote cactuses? The next M word nearly made my heart explode. _No way. This can’t be real. This list has to be fake._

The door opened up and he stepped out. I jumped out of the chair and held the vial up. “Where did you get these from? Please tell me you aren’t _actually_ taking these?” I asked, my hands shaking and my words coming out in a rush.

“What?” He snapped before realizing what I was holding and his face went pale. “Where did you find that! Give it to me!” He reached for my wrist and I pulled away.

“No! Do you realize what’s in these things?!” I pulled the vial close to me as he lunged for it again.

“Briar. Stop! Give it to me. You shouldn’t have that!” He snapped, grabbing my shoulders when I kept moving away from him. _Avoiding where I was cut this time, wow._

“Please… Listen to me.” I said, attempting to sound calm as I stared into his frantic eyes. “I need you to trust me here, please.”

His grip on my shoulders tightened as his gaze turned to a glare, “What.”

_Thank you_. “If what is on the label is correct, these pills will _kill_ you.”

The look on his face was a weird mix of shock, fear, and suspicion. Not totally believing me, clearly. “Bullshit.”

“No!” I shouted and he flinched, pulling away from me fast and looking frightened. _Oh crap, you don’t like yelling either. Okay. Noted._ “Sorry… I’m sorry for yelling. Just, please. On top of having hallucinogens… They’re toxic, there’s methanol in these things, that can destroy your entire nervous system, or make you blind, or _kill_ you.”

He was silent for a moment, just staring at me. “H-how do you know that’s in there.”

“It’s on the label.” I pointed to the word and handed him the vial to look at for himself, but my heart was pounding too hard for me to wait for him to read it. “Where did you get these things? How long have you been taking them?!”

His gaze was guarded this time when he looked to me, not answering the questions. I could practically see the war going on in his mind over my words, _does he trust me enough to believe this?_

_If he’s considering this information against something then is…_ “Is that ‘Savior’ making you take these?” I guessed.

He glared at the corner of the room, “I shouldn’t have let that slip.”

It was my turn to put my hands on his shoulders and he flinched, looking ready to jump away from my touch too but for whatever reason, he stayed. “Unknown… Hacker… Whatever, please. I’m trying to help you. If this Savior lady is making you take these, you need to stop. I honestly don’t know how you’re alive right now if you’ve been ingesting methanol regularly.”

His eyes narrowed, “Unknown… really?”

“I don’t know your name!” I said with an exasperated laugh, _of course, you ignore everything else I just said too._

He grumbled, gaze flicking to the corner of the room again. “You already know way too much.” He turned silent, long enough for my nerves to bunch up and my hands to start shaking. He looked back at me with a glare. “If I tell you my name, you have to promise to keep it to yourself. If you let this slip to anyone you will get not only yourself in danger but both of us. You understand?”

_How can a name have that much power…_ “Fine. I promise.”

He hesitated, looking sick. “It’s Saeran.”

“Saeran.” I could feel the muscles at his shoulders bunch as I said it.

“Yes.” He muttered.

“Okay, Saeran, can you please stop taking these pills before they do any more damage to you?” I felt like I was begging, I shouldn’t have to beg someone to save their own life. _That’s… that’s really what I’m doing right now, dear god._

“I-I…” He looked down. “Let me think about it.”

_Think about…?!_ Fine, that was fine for now. “Okay…” I let go of his shoulders and took a step back. “I’m sorry for getting in your space and asking a million questions. I know you don’t like that. I’m just scared for you.”

Some of the tension in his face went away with that and he fiddled with the bottom of his sweater. _I do the same thing all the time…_ “You’re fine, but you need to leave before this gets any worse.”

My chest ached a bit at that comment but I shook the feeling off. “Okay.”

“I’ll walk you to your apartment.” He muttered, then glanced at me and groaned. “Your jacket is nasty and you need something more than that thin ass shirt.” He shook his head and pulled the black hoodie he was wearing off, exposing a plain red shirt he’d been wearing underneath and tossed it to me. “Wear that for now.”

_You’re walking me home…?_ Probably just because of what happened.

_…Thank you._

My cheeks burned and I was thankful he’d stepped away to grab his other jacket at that moment. _Okay, two things, you are scary thin and how are you that cold that you need two jackets and a shirt on._ I ignored the thought and pulled the sweater over my head, trying to not think about how awkward this was.

 

We walked to the apartment in silence which I was beyond okay with. I was busy working through everything from the night anyway and trying my best to not fall asleep on my feet. Of course, there were things I wanted to ask, but I wouldn’t let myself. Not tonight. Hopefully, he’d message me again soon and we could chat more then… but for now, I know he needed a break from all my pushing for answers.

He stopped just short of the door to the apartment complex. “You can take it from here, you shouldn’t get mugged when you’re _this_ close to home.”

Somehow I found that funny, my laughter taking him by surprise. “I sure hope not.”

He stared at me for a long minute, those blue eyes seeming to glow again under the street lights. “Alright. Goodbye, Briar.” He span around and started heading back the way we came.

“Thank you, Saeran,” I said back at a careful volume, just enough that he could hear. His shoulders bunched and he tossed a glance back at me before continuing on.

 

_…I really hope Aspen is asleep already._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...And that's the end of Part One!  
>  Just want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has been reading up to this point and left kudos, comments, and all that! I hope it's been enjoyable, and I appreciate your time~


	12. 2.0

**-*/ Part_Two \\*-**

 

**2.0**

Hushed conversation and laughter from below finally convinced me to stop fighting with the inconsistent and restless sleep I’d been struggling with all night. A sleep-deprived day would lead to a well rested night anyway, an exchange I was beyond willing to make at this point.

I rolled over, pulling the blankets off my head and wincing at the sudden burst of light. My hand instinctively went to my phone, the screen seemed to laugh at me as it showed the time, past ten in the morning. _Was I really tossing and turning for that long?_ It’d only felt like a few hours, so maybe I had slept a little bit in-between all those spiraling thoughts after all…

It had been beyond hard to process everything from the previous night, my attempts at digesting and understanding all of it making it a challenge to even think about sleep. Attacked by a strange man near one of the busier streets in the city, saved by the hacker – someone who was considered dangerous by everyone I associated with, brought to the hacker’s hotel and found out he was possibly a part of a cult, taking pills that were certain to kill him, and his name… Which for some reason was dangerous to know.

I felt like I’d learned a lot from that hour or so I was with the guy last night, but in all reality, the only question I’d gotten answered was what pills he was taking. _Hallucinogens… That has to be what’s making him act so strange and angry, right?_

All I’d gained from meeting the guy was a greater concern and connection with him… 

Laughter boomed from below before Aspen hushed the person and the sound was muffled into an almost painful sounding chuckle. So someone was visiting then… G _reat, I probably look like a complete bum sleeping so late._ I quickly shoved out of bed and pulled some clothes from my drawer, my arm rebelled against the movement – erupting into a blunt, aching pain every time the joint moved. The wrap felt sticky and just a little bit too tight. _I hope this heals fast._

I nearly went downstairs with the bandage exposed and halted myself just before Aspen and the guest would have heard me on the stairs. Of course, it was my lightest jacket that had gotten ripped and bloody, the best one to wear in warm weather. Everything else I had was meant for fall and winter and it was still too hot for those. _I refuse to wear the hacker… No, Saeran’s… sweater around either._ That would raise too many questions.

I snagged one my cardigans off a hanger and threw it on before finally descending the stairs to figure out who was visiting.

“Briar! I must have woken you up, I apologize!” Zen was seated at the kitchen counter, Aspen standing on the other side of it with a huge smile on her face. “This girl is just too funny.”

“Isn’t she?” I joined them, taking a seat on the other bar stool. “Good morning. I’m sorry for sleeping so late. It’s nice to see you, Zen.” I passed him a bright smile.

“You too, Briar! It’s been too long. Seems everyone else has gotten a chance to see you recently but for me.” He chuckled, “It’s not fair.”

“You’re just way to busy with that play, which makes perfect sense,” I replied.

His eyes lit up with excitement, “Oh! You and Jaehee ordered tickets, didn’t you? I saw you guys on the opening night lists.”

I laughed, “Really? I didn’t think you’d get to see who was attending.”

He winked, “I was so excited when I saw your names. I may have told the director to bump you both up to VIP seating.”

_Dang, really?!_ I gasped, “Zen, thank you! That’s so awesome! Have you told Jaehee yet?”

“I’d like to leave it as a surprise for her if you don’t mind keeping the secret.” He chuckled, “I think she’ll freak out, and I’d prefer to see that myself.”

“You finally realized exactly how big of a fangirl she is for you?” Aspen asked with a laugh, leaning across the counter and propping her head up on her arms. “It’s beyond time.”

He sighed, “Yeah. I feel pretty slow for not realizing she was such a fan.”

Aspen laughed, “What did you think all that praise was then?!”

Zen shrugged, “Exactly that, praise… support.” He laughed, “I’m blind, apparently.”

“You’re too modest,” I said with a smirk.

Aspen burst out laughing, pulling off the counter and trying to muffle the sound with her hands – which ultimately failed. She stepped away until she bumped into the stove, attempting to calm herself.

Zen shook his head. “Okay, I take that as a sign to move on. What have you two been up too?” He asked.

“Oh!” Aspen boomed, skipping back up to the counter and leaning into it again. _T_ _hat was a fast switch._ “When did you get back last night?” she asked me, her smile falling to a guilty frown “I tried staying up to wait for you, especially since I missed your calls… But I passed out on the couch. Did something happen?”

_Do you really have to bring it up now?!_ Couldn’t that have waited until later? There were plenty of other things to talk about, things not focused on me.

“Oh ho. Did Briar have an eventful night?” Zen added to the fire, winking to top it all off.

My stomach churned, frantic, frosted blue eyes staring back at me every time I blinked. I hadn’t thought of how to cover this up yet, I’d been too busy trying to piece things together to even consider Aspen’s curiosity and concerns. She had called me three times and sent multiple messages, but I hadn’t seen them until I’d gotten home.

They were both waiting patiently for a response. The look on Aspen’s face falling further and further towards something similar to annoyance… and hurt.

_No please, don’t get angry…_

I needed something that would cover this up for good… Something that would protect Saeran and his ‘dangerous’ name and occupation, and prevent Aspen from asking billions of questions and searching for a truth that would only hurt her more than the lies did. _But what?!_

“Well, I went to a bookstore café mix a few blocks away,” I said first, glad to see at least Zen wasn’t bothered by my thoughtful pause. “Then walked around town with someone for a while.” _Someone… A crazy guy with a knife, then the hacker that everyone is afraid of._

“Someone…?” Aspen echoed, her head tilting to the side… like a confused dog.

“Did you meet someone?” Zen asked, “Did you meet a guy?”

_That would work_. Plus it’s close enough to the truth… “Yes.” I fibbed, both of them jumping and looking way too excited about it. _Aspen believes it, good._ “But not in the way you’re thinking. It wasn’t some romantic walk through the city at night. We just chatted for a while.” I laughed, forcing on a simple smile.

“Wha-at?!” Aspen moaned, looking disappointed. My heart stuttered in my chest. “I’m so jealous!!” _Oh, thank god._ “I want to meet someone and go on a long walk just talking.” She continued whining.

Zen laughed, “So go outside then, Aspen. Stop hanging out on your phone and computer all day.” He shook his head, “You’re just like Yoosung and Seven. Spending all your time on computers.”

She pouted, cheeks going red.

“Speaking of Seven,” Zen said, smirking to my blushing friend. “What was with those messages last night? All that stuff about not being able to have friends, and calling you just an acquaintance. He’s got to be lying right? I mean… you two are like… two peas in a pod.”

“I don’t know!” Aspen boomed, slamming her hands on the countertop hard before dropping to lay on it again and groan. “He sounds so depressed and it’s making me depressed.”

“Wait, what’s going on?” I asked, secretly thankful that they’d changed the topic so quickly and easily. Like my previous night was nothing that noteworthy. “I didn’t check any chatrooms last night.”

Zen chuckled, “You need to keep up better, Briar.”

“Seven is depressed?” I questioned, looking to both of them.

Aspen finally explained, “Last night, while I was waiting for you to come home, we were chatting on the messenger and he sounded so sad. He kept talking about how bad he was doing with work, and how his bosses are angry, and that he’s pathetic and not good at what he’s doing. And I tried to tell him not to compare himself against anyone and not let his work stress him out so much… Then he started saying stuff about us not even being friends. Because he can’t have friends.”

_Holy crap, that doesn’t sound like Seven at all._ “Has he been online at all since then?”

“Nope,” Zen said.

“Has anyone tried calling him? Or talking to him about it?”

“I tried, but he wouldn’t pick up,” Aspen answered sadly.

A long sigh escaped me. _Seven…_ He was so controversial, I hadn’t even _tried_ thinking through the conflicting signals I was getting from him up to this point. Between Aspen’s feelings for him and Saeran’s strong opposition and want for me to stay away… I wasn’t sure what to do. _But no one should feel like that, or at least be feeling that way without any support or help._ _I don’t care what they did in the past._ “I could try talking to him.”

“Can you?” Aspen asked, a hopeful look in her eyes. “You’re so good with helping people.”

“I feel like he needs you, though, Aspen,” Zen said, stiffening and waving his hands. “Not that I don’t believe that you’re helpful and kind, Briar. I can already tell that you are a great person to go to for help… But, I think this is a way for Seven to get around his feelings for Aspen.”

I’d never seen Aspen’s face _that_ red before.

Zen laughed again as he watched her try to cover her face. “No reason to hide, Aspen.”

“Nope.” I echoed, smiling as she revealed herself.

“Everyone in the RFA is already aware that you and Seven are like star-crossed lovers.” Zen chuckled.

I laughed and Aspen ducked behind the counter. She forced out a fake laugh, “Okay, enough with that.” She sang. “Let’s stop talking about this and focus more on what he was saying!”

“We should definitely talk to him,” I said. “Something isn’t right, none of the stuff you said sounds like the Seven I’ve come to know in the past week.”

“Exactly!” Aspen sang.

 

Zen stayed for a good bit, discussing further about Seven, then Seven and Aspen both – which resulted in her escaping to her room for at least five minutes to try and avoid the conversation. There was no doubt he would have stayed even longer if he didn’t have practice in a few hours, I told him he should come by more frequently since he knew the address now.

“I should tell everyone else where we live, then they can all stop by,” Aspen said after he had left. She dropped onto the couch and pulled out her phone like she was about to do just that.

I changed the subject, “you should call Seven.”

The smile vanished and she hugged her knees. “I should… but I’m kind of tired of hearing his voicemail and the last time he answered he just talked about someone precious to him the whole time… and didn’t tell me who that person even is.” That seemed to drag her mood down, even more, she buried her chin against her knees.

A drop of anger reached my heart seeing her like that, so I quickly pulled up the app and called the guy. She sat up straight again as I put the phone to my ear, her face growing pale and whispering ‘are you calling him?’ to which I nodded.

It rang for a pretty long time and I was about ready to just give up, but on what was probably the final tone – he picked up. “Hello? Briar?” _Why does his voice sound so dul_ _l?_

Aspen slapped a hand over her mouth.

“Yes! Hey, Seven! What are you up too right now?” I questioned, carefully turning the volume up so Aspen could hear his end as well. Knowing better than to hit that speaker button since he’d be able to hear the echo through the speaker. “Not too busy I hope?”

He sighed, “I should be busy, but I’m just laying here instead. Counting the stars on my ceiling and wishing they were real.”

Aspen dropped her head, looking just as disheartened as he sounded.

“What’s going on? I’ve heard from a couple people now that you aren’t feeling well and were saying some odd stuff in the chatrooms.”

The laugh he gave in response was sad and completely void of his normal energy. “Yeah, I guess I should stop moping around and start acting like 707 again.”

_Acting like 707? Wouldn’t that just be acting like yourself?_ “You shouldn’t have to act like anything,” I replied, and continued talking when silence followed the answer. “If something is bothering you, it’s best to talk about it – not act in front of your friends who want to help you through it. Maybe we can’t do anything directly to help lighten your workload, but I’m sure there is _something_ we could do to help you feel better.”

“Briar… You and Aspen are too kind.” He muttered.

“Aspen wants to help you in any possible way, Seven,” I said. “She’s feeling pretty crappy too, seeing you like this. Maybe you could talk to her? She’ll listen to anything you have to say, I can guarantee that.”

“Well, there’s somethings… Aspen can’t know…” He sighed.

“Like what, Seven? What do you have to hide from someone who cares about you unconditionally like Aspen?”

More silence, _I don’t know why… but this is reminding me of trying to talk with Saeran… Just as reluctant to answer questions and accept help._ “Plenty. I’m not in a position to accept people into my life, as much as I’d like to accept her.” He said. “She’ll just get hurt if she spends any more time with me. I’m not… who she thinks I am.”

Aspen had gone pale.

“Aspen will accept you for whoever you are. Take it from someone who experienced her kindness and open-heartedness first-handedly. No matter how bad things may be, she can find a way to bring happiness into your life. I promise.”

“Briar,” Aspen whispered, tears building in her eyes. “You’re talking me up too much.”

“I am not,” I whispered back, keeping a steady gaze with her teary eyes.

“Uh…” Seven stammered over the line. “I-I… I don’t know what to say.”

“Talk to her, Seven,” I said in what I hoped sounded like a caring voice. “Maybe you don’t have to tell her everything about you right this instant… but you should talk to her.”

“Let me think about it.” He muttered after a moment of hesitation. _Okay now you’re just repeating what I heard last night, that’s creepy._

“Of course.” I said back, “I hope you can feel better. Everyone wants you to be happy.”

“Thank you… for trying to help. You’re both great.” He said, “I should go.”

“Don’t stress yourself too much, goodbye.” The call ended with that and I looked up to Aspen, her arms still wrapped around her legs as silent trails of tears dripped down her cheeks, yet she smiled to me anyway.

“You’re too good.” She said with a laugh. “That was much more of a response than I’ve been able to get out of him.”

I smiled, “You have a lot on your plate with this guy, that’s for sure.”

She shrugged, “I had a lot on my plate with you and that was so beyond worth it.” She giggled, “Thanks for helping.”

“Enough thanking me.” I laughed and stood up, “I’m going to start getting organized for classes.”

She groaned, finally letting go of her legs and dropping back onto the couch. “I should do that too, it’s only a few days till they start. Damn.”


	13. 2.1

**2.1**

Cold water pounded my bare back, each strike feeling like icy daggers splitting through my skin. I wanted to cool off, I wanted to get rid of this constant, pounding ache in my head that was making me nauseous… but nothing was helping. The hot water had made me feel sicker and the cold only made the ache worse. _This needs to stop, this all needs to stop._

The Savior had finally replied to my report… She wanted more than I’d given her. She wanted all the information drained from their servers, all contact info on previous party guests sent in, and all the RFA members brought into Mint Eye as soon as possible. The girls… she wanted them brought in even sooner than that… Thought they could be useful for other endeavors based off what I’d disclosed on them.

_No. No way. I’m not bringing her there. Ever._

My mind was an absolute mess, conflicting thoughts swirling around at top speeds – making it hard to tell what was happening at times… What I was feeling. Sometimes I didn’t want anything to do with the RFA or those girls, just wanted to forget everything that had happened with Briar and return to Magenta where at least I knew I was, essentially, safe. Other times I wanted to stop replying to The Savior entirely, ditch everything that had to do with her and that place and just drive until the car broke down. Leave everything behind. 

Both those ideas left me feeling hollow, sick, and stupid.

The ache in my head grew and I pressed a fist to my temples – putting as much pressure as I could and swearing as the pain continued to grow. _Why…? Just stop._

Savior had replied about the medication as well. My stupid, delirious haze had convinced me to ask about progress on an update and if a refill could be sent soon. Now she wanted to send me tests of new variations, had promised to have them specially delivered to me and to keep an eye out for the believers in disguise.

I didn’t want them. She couldn’t force me to take them if I wasn’t in the building, I didn’t have to put myself through that hell again. Besides… Briar had told the truth… the shit in those things was toxic. It was surprising I wasn’t dead yet. That no one taking the pills had died yet.

 _She’s trustworthy. She cares. She_ actually _cares about you._

“Fuck.”

My stomach churned and bile shot up my throat, _not again_ , I barely managed to direct myself at the drain in time – the nasty shit flying from my mouth and leaving me feeling weaker than I had a minute ago. My knees wobbled and I quickly grabbed the sides of the tub before collapsing, my stomach still heaving, my mouth filled with that disgusting, dusty, metallic taste. _Stop… stop… just stop._ My body wouldn’t listen, it hadn’t been listening for days now.

I puked until there was nothing left to get out, not that there had even been much. A few cups of water maybe… Once that was all gone my stomach kept trying, dry heaving every two seconds and coughing up nothing but air and saliva. My insides burned with each retch like a fire had ignited in my gut and wouldn’t stop burning until everything was ashes.

I pulled the shower head off and rinsed everything down the drain, aware of the tremors shooting through my entire body as I kneeled there. After assuring all the bile was drained away I propped the shower head back up and let myself lay at the bottom of the tub, just breathing… Not thinking… Not letting myself feel anything but the cold water pounding my chest. Trying to ignore all the other pains and aches for as long as I possibly could.

 _How haven’t these pills killed you yet?_ Or was it happening now…? Was I going to puke up everything in my body in the next few days? It felt like that was what was happening. My throat raw and scratched from the heaving, my stomach constantly upset, my head switching between a bearable pain and an incapacitating agony.

Maybe being gone was better. It wasn’t like I was welcome in this world anyway, I didn’t have anywhere to go if I didn’t stay at Magenta. The only reason I was surviving in this city was because of Mint Eye… and The Savior’s money. I couldn’t make it anywhere when I was as weak and pathetic as I was. A bug is always a bug, a weed is always a weed. Persistent, stupid, and filled with a hope for something bigger and better. _Such an airhead._

_Absolutely worthless._

I pressed my foot over the drain, let the icy cold water start pooling around me, rising steadily and consuming more of my already freezing body. The sound of the shower head gradually became less sharp, the patter of the water sounding more like rain hitting a still pond... quiet, calming. I squeezed my eyes shut as it started to flood over my face. _It’d be so easy. Just plug the drain. No one would even know._

'Saeran.'

My eyes flashed open and I sat upright fast enough to feel lightheaded and nearly throw up again. The water rushed down the drain, gurgling, the shower head loud once again. I glanced around the very empty bathroom, searching for a source of the voice I’d heard before realizing I’d imagined it. My eyes fell to a lump of discarded brown fabric and a shiver shot down my spine.

It’d been her voice.

_Damn it all._

 

It took a long while of laying there under the shower head to feel strong enough to even get up and out of the tub… but I managed to do it eventually. I forced clothes on, dragged my aching body to the bed and just laid there, staring at the wall. Thankful that the hotel bed was far nicer than the mattress I had back home, the blankets soft and smooth instead of scratchy and thin.

Something vibrated on the side desk and I reached blindly for my phone, the light of the screen aggravating the migraine pounding at my skull. There was another message from The Savior, an instruction of what to do to get information moving through the servers quicker. An image file was attached to the email, some poster advertising Mint Eye. She wanted it sent to all of them. I groaned.

I hadn’t touched the RFA messenger in what felt like forever. A few of the believers had messaged, asking me to help improve the security before The Savior found out about the break-in. Whatever that meant… None of them would explain it to me no matter how much I yelled and threatened them. I’d been busy with that, organizing a new program to train the guards and implementing new stuff into the systems.

That would make The Savior happy once it finally reached her and she found out it was my work… But until then, she wouldn’t appreciate anything until she got what she wanted.

…I didn’t want to do it though. There was something driving me away from touching that code again or even attempting to break into that lying redheads firewalls. Though I wasn’t certain, hadn’t bothered giving it thought beyond that impulse of aversion, I was sure it had something to do with her… with _Briar_.

Those big worried eyes, her kind words, her concern…

The Savior would want a report again soon, and if I didn’t give her anything in response… Well, I wouldn’t be the only one in trouble. She wanted those girls as soon as possible and if I couldn’t prove that they were useful for my side of the mission… I wasn’t sure what would happen to them.

To Briar.

_… Whatever it is, she doesn’t deserve it._

______

 

> **V:** Ah, Briar, you’re just the person I was hoping to see on here!  
>  **Briar:** Hi, V ^^  
>  **Briar:** How come?  
>  **V:** I’ll be leaving for a while again soon  
>  **V:** But I’ve managed to set aside time to meet with you and Aspen  
>  **Briar:** Oh! Awesome!  
>  **V:** Yes, Aspen previously told me any day would work before your classes began.  
>  **V:** So, would either tomorrow or the day after that work?  
>  **Briar:** I’m sure tomorrow would be fine!  
>  **Briar:** We really don’t have much planned.  
>  **V:** Wonderful. I will call you tomorrow morning to decide on a time.  
>  **V:** I look forward to meeting you  
>  **Briar:** We do as well, V!

______


	14. 2.2

**2.2**

I cleared the plans for tomorrow with Aspen, which proved to be a process. She was in the middle of a very long phone call with Seven. Which I was happy for of course, but it was a bit annoying standing in her doorway patiently waiting for a chance to slip in and tell her V was visiting tomorrow.

She would be busy for a while… Hopefully, her magic would work on Seven and he’d be feeling better soon.

There was nothing more I could do in preparation for school and I was too distracted to even attempt to read through a book. So I wandered the apartment looking for things to do, constantly checking my phone in hopes of a message from Saeran… For anything from him. I couldn’t get him off my mind, I was stressing over those darn pills – worrying he was still taking them despite what I’d said yesterday. It was beyond frustrating that I couldn’t reach out to him myself, that I could only talk to him when he wanted to message me.

Had he not seen the chatroom I was in with V? I’d expected him to talk to me after seeing I’d agreed to meet with the guy. Expected him to be freaking out about it again. This was odd, and I was over analyzing his silence as something much worse than it probably was. It’s not like we’d even talked much before last night… and he hadn’t messed with the messenger at all for a while either.

_What's going on?_

If only there was some way I could get a hold of him easier…

I glanced out the window, saw the dying sunlight and the dark sky. This was about the time I had gone out last night… Just before night had fallen. _Huh…_

I grabbed my keys and quietly stepped out of the apartment, making sure my phone was on as I headed out for the streets. _He was watching me on that weird map last night, maybe he’s doing the same thing tonight._ I wouldn’t go far, just walk down the block a bit, once it really started to get dark I’d head back. I wasn’t stubborn or brave enough to walk far after last night’s events.

The phone buzzed and my heart skipped around as I quickly checked the notification. _That was even faster than I thought…_ But it wasn’t him.

> **Aspen:** Hey, where’d you go?  
>  **Briar:** Just taking a short walk. I’ll be back in a few!  
>  **Aspen:** oooo, are you with that guy again c;  
>  **Briar:** No, you should focus on YOUR guy lol  
>  **Aspen:** hey… - >.>-  
>  **Aspen:** be safe!!

_Maybe this is a stupid idea…_ Was I really desperate enough to hear from this person that I’d put myself in danger for him? Just so I can _talk_ to him? It’s pretty extreme…

_What am I saying… everything to do with this guy is dangerous and has been since the start. How is this any_ _different?_ Going outside wasn’t necessarily threatening… it was just my fears left over from the previous night that made it appear so. It wasn’t that dark, there were still plenty of people on the streets, and no creepers were following behind me. It was fine. For now.

_But I am willing to do a lot for this person…_ Including lie to my closest friend and the entire RFA, people I would like to consider friends. _Why_ was I trying so dang hard to talk with the one person I’d met since moving here that was not easy to talk with, the one that I wasn’t even certain _wanted_ to talk to me? The one person that acted like a complete jerk half the time. The one that could be a member of a _cult_!

Answers to questions? Sure… but was it really worth it to chase after him? I could ask the RFA about things too… Heck, I’d only ever asked Yoosung about Rika. I could ask everyone else about her and V if those were the answers I was so desperate for… The rest of it, answers to why we were dropped in the messenger and the reason it was all being hacked would come with time. Once Seven caught…

_…No._ Saeran had saved my life last night. He’d been through hell and was trying to protect me from experiencing the same thing, he was suffering and from what it sounded like… no one else was helping him at all.

I _wouldn’t_ get the answers I was looking for from the RFA because I wanted to know what had happened to _Saeran_. Why there was someone on the outside that was doing as bad as he was, that was directly negatively impacted by this charity association.

Maybe it’s less about getting answers as it is about helping him. I _care_ about him.

My heart thrashed hard in my chest, my stomach swirling and knotting up.

_Besides… it’s not just him… it’s not even necessarily his choice to be attacking the RFA. This ‘Savior’ is the one behind all of it, the one feeding him poison and ordering him around._

I had been focusing too much on how this affected Aspen, on my reasoning for lying to her. I was lying to her to protect him, this odd person who had a past similar to my own. That’s _fine_. She lies to protect me and I would do the same for her. It’s what people did for those they cared about…

_So… is V doing the same thing…?_

The phone buzzed again, my entire train of thought lost with that vibration.

> **Unknown:**  ...what are you doing...

_Oh my god, it worked._ A huge, stupid grin pulled at the corners of my lips and I stopped walking, stepping out of the way of all the passerby as I replied.

> **Briar:** Trying to get your attention lmao  
>  **Unknown:** What?  
>  **Briar:** I wanted to talk to you  
>  **Briar:** I couldn’t think of any other way to get a hold of you.  
>  **Unknown:** So you went…  
>  **Unknown:** …Briar…  
>  **Unknown:** go home…  
>  **Briar:** Only if you promise to keep talking with me for a while, don’t delete everything right away like you normally do  
>  **Unknown:** I’ll keep talking to you  
>  **Unknown:** Just please get home.

I span on my heel and started back towards the apartment, feeling way too excited over the fact that my plan had _actually_ worked. There was something off about his messages, just a bit too much time between each one… They weren’t as angry sounding as usual either. Not that text could _sound_ angry, but I wasn’t picking up any hostility through the words this time.

_Something is different._

I took a seat at my desk as soon as I was back and focused on the phone screen. Eager to chat with this guy again.

> **Unknown:** So…  
>  **Briar:** are you not watching the chatrooms anymore?  
>  **Briar:** Seven said a while ago that he hadn’t see you hacking anything.  
>  **Unknown:** …  
>  **Unknown:** What happened to our favor arrangement with these questions…  
>  **Briar:** lol, I don’t know.  
>  **Briar:** I owe you a lot for saving me last night… like five whole favors, maybe even more  
>  **Unknown:** …lol

I was smiling at that for some reason. _Something is so different._

> **Unknown:** so I get five questions then  
>  **Briar:** Do you even have five questions?  
>  **Unknown:** …Maybe  
>  **Unknown:** let me hold onto them… I’ll use them later.  
>  **Briar:** lol, okay, sounds good.  
>  **Unknown:** To answer your question… which I fail to see the relevance of…  
>  **Briar:** I have a lot to ask, not all of it is useful lol  
>  **Unknown:** I know you do…  
>  **Unknown:** I haven’t done anything to the messenger recently. I was busy with other things.  
>  **Briar:** like?

I didn’t expect a real answer to that, normally he shoved additional prodding off and got angry at me for trying.

> **Unknown:** Security enhancements.

…Guess that’s changed.

> **Briar:** uhm, okay.  
>  **Briar:** was it for this ‘savior’ person you were talking about?  
>  **Unknown:** … yes.  
>  **Briar:** okay…

_I’m not going to take this for granted._ That creepily titled person was a sensitive topic that almost always ended in him cutting off communication and questions. I would leave it be for tonight, there were other things I wanted to talk about.

> **Unknown:** I do have to… do more with the messenger… don’t freak out when you see it.  
>  **Briar:** wait what?  
>  **Unknown:**  If I don’t… you might be in danger.

_What?_

> **Unknown:** The only thing I’m certain about right now is that I don’t want anything to happen to you.  
>  **Unknown:** So for now… I’ll do what I can to prevent something bad from happening.

I was speechless after seeing those messages. _What is this shift? He’s acting so strange…_

> **Briar:** I’m confused… what’s going on?  
>  **Unknown:** I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.  
>  **Unknown:** I don’t know anything  
>  **Unknown:** I’m an idiot… if you haven’t realized that yet.  
>  **Briar:** you are not an idiot!  
>  **Unknown:** My head is a mess.  
>  **Unknown:** I don’t know what to believe anymore. I don’t know.  
>  **Unknown:** but I do know I put you in trouble.  
>  **Unknown:** and I won’t let you get hurt.  
>  **Unknown:** I won’t let her touch you. I promise.  
>  **Briar:** Saeran.  
>  **Briar:** what danger would I be in?  
>  **Unknown:** The Savior wants you.  
>  **Briar:** …and that puts me in danger?  
>  **Unknown:** absolutely  
>  **Briar:** you don’t… trust her? Or…  
>  **Unknown:** I. Don’t. Know.  
>  **Unknown:** she’ll hurt you. She’ll poison you just like she did to me and everyone else.  
>  **Briar:** The pills? She was making you take them… you aren’t doing that anymore are you?!  
>  **Unknown:** no. I wont.  
>  **Briar:** Thank you… thank you. Thank you. I’m so glad you decided to stop.

I let go of a long breath, my tension going with it. _Thank god…_ At least I didn’t have to worry about that anymore. He wasn’t willingly consuming poison. _But what about the rest of this?_ Sure, he would try to protect me from the wrath of this person he was working for… which was amazing, and unbelievable… but what about him? Wasn’t he in greater danger if he was _working_ for them?

'The Savior’ wanted me, but she already _had_ him… She’d forced him to gulp down deadly medication, was forcing him to hack the messenger – at least to some extent, the way he was talking now it sounded like he was being forced, and he was _afraid_ of her.

If this was a cult… which it was sounding more and more like it was… how long had he been in it? Suffering because of it?

_Why is he even in this position? How did he get here?_

He was kind… Just being manipulated to do things for someone who wasn’t anywhere near as thoughtful and kind-hearted. He didn’t belong in a place like that.

> **Unknown:** … I hated them since the start anyway.  
>  **Briar:** How long has it been?  
>  **Unknown:** too long…  
>  **Unknown:** ugh  
>  **Briar:** what?  
>  **Unknown:** my head is killing me. Everything is killing me.  
>  **Briar:** headache?  
>  **Unknown:** worse… I don’t know  
>  **Unknown:** I haven’t stopped puking since last night  
>  **Briar:** What?!?!  
>  **Unknown:** I can’t think.  
>  **Unknown:** I can’t do anything it just makes it worse.  
>  **Briar:** have you been able to eat or drink anything?  
>  **Unknown:** I haven’t tried.  
>  **Briar:** Saeran! You need to drink water at least.  
>  **Unknown:** it’ll just come back up again..  
>  **Briar:** you need to try anyway… you won’t get better if you don’t eat or drink anything  
>  **Briar:** you’ll just keep getting sicker.  
>  **Unknown:** …  
>  **Unknown:** ugh.  
>  **Briar:** do you need help? I can help you.  
>  **Briar:** I can bring some food and stuff over. I know things that can help when you’re puking.  
>  **Unknown:** …  
>  **Unknown:** it’s late.. I can’t walk with you  
>  **Briar:** that’s fine! I’ll be fine!  
>  **Unknown:** no, Briar… you shouldn’t go out alone.  
>  **Unknown:** I need to get shit done anyway.  
>  **Briar:** you need to sleep.  
>  **Unknown:** I can’t and it wont help.

I stood from the desk and pulled my sneakers on, switched my cardigan for the sweater he’d lent me last night and started down the stairs.

> **Briar:** Then I’m coming.  
>  **Unknown:** Briar…  
>  **Briar:** I owe you don’t I? I’m going to help you now.

Aspen was still in her room and hadn’t stirred at all when I came downstairs and started looking through cabinets. I assumed she’d either fallen asleep or was too distracted to notice… Hopefully the former so she wouldn’t question me getting back late again. _Please don’t freak out… Just stay asleep._

I shoved the dry, bland food I’d dug up into my bag and quietly exited the apartment. The way there was still fresh enough in my memory, I could go based on landmarks at each turn. He wouldn’t have to guide me…

> **Briar:** just lay down, Saeran. I’ll be there soon.  
>  **Unknown:** …… Be careful…

With everything he was supposedly doing for me, this was nothing. Walking through the streets alone was only scary if I kept thinking about last night. If I kept my head forward and ignored those creepy, dark alleys, I’d be fine. It wasn’t far.

_I can't believe I'm doing this._


	15. 2.3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit of a shit show... but so is the rest of this story...  
> And thinking of that made me think of this song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv5THk5Mri4  
> Kind of relevant? lmao.

**2.3**

I’d figured the walk to the hotel would be the most intimidating part of my choice, but as I hit the sixth floor and started searching for that room I’d been at last night the amount of adrenaline coursing through my veins seemed to multiply exponentially. My heart rammed hard in my chest, my thoughts jumping back and forth between telling me to get the heck out of here, and worrying over how sick he had to be. I ignored the mess and stopped between two doors, 644 and 645. I couldn’t remember which one I’d been at, but I was sure it was this part of the hallway.

645 seemed like the best bet for some reason and I lightly knocked at the door, calling out a timid ‘hello’. _What if it’s the wrong room?_

Then I could check the other one, no big deal… _I need to calm down, there’s not going to be a serial killer living next to him or anything like that…_

The door unlocked and squeaked open just a crack, cutting off those anxious thoughts. I hesitated a moment, expecting someone to step through and greet me… but when no one did I pushed it the rest of the way open, certain then that I had the right room. I shut it behind me quietly, ignoring the way my stomach twisted up at the familiarity. An ache shot through my arm like the wound could remember last night as well.

A lamp next to the bed cast a yellow light across dramatically dark shadows. The curtains drawn, blocking the view of the bright street below. It made the room seem like a different world in comparison to the bright hallway and lively streets. Too dark and stuffy.

Saeran’s back was to me, his head tipped towards the ceiling, his fingers tangled in and pulling at his white hair. There was a slight sway to his stance like he’d fall over at any moment.

“Hello,” I called again, taking a few steps further into the room.

He glanced back to me, his eyes underscored by bags dark enough to be bruises, his gaze feverish and exhausted. _Sheesh, what happened in the few hours since I saw you?_ Sure, he had been rubbing at his head then too… But he hadn’t looked so sick or in pain then.

“You have a good memory.” He muttered, voice sounding strained like his throat was raw and dry. He took a seat on the corner of the bed and dropped his head to his hands, rubbing harshly at his forehead. “I didn’t expect you to get here without help.”

_That’s a… really odd comment coming from you…?_ I’d expected some irritation or avoidance when I first arrived, some lame attempt at telling me I shouldn’t have been here to begin with. He really is acting strange today… _Wonder if it’s because he’s sick?_

“Well, I don’t think I’ll be forgetting any bit of last night for a long while,” I replied anyway, setting my bag on the bed and standing hesitantly next to him. His hair was tipped a light pink, I hadn’t noticed that last night. _How do you even dye your hair like that?_ It was pretty, almost looked like flower petals.

“Didn’t you say that happened before?” He muttered, voice muffled by his hands.

“What?” I answered, though I already knew what he was getting at.

“Being followed or whatever. I don’t know.” He looked up at me then, the shift seemed to drain more of his energy - his face went ghostly pale and he swayed more violently. I caught his shoulder quickly, he jumped at the touch, but the swaying stopped. I could feel the heat radiating through the thin fabric of the t-shirt and the slight shiver that rocked his frame. _Okay, you’re really sick._

“Yes, I’ve been followed like that before.” I answered quietly, “I can tell you about it if you want… but you need to lay down first. You look like you’re going to pass out.”

He blinked a few times, gaze shunting off to the desk and I could tell he was thinking about something related to his work, but he nodded and laid down as asked. Propping himself upright on the pillows and squeezing his eyes shut.

“Thank you,” I said quickly, and ran off to the bathroom to dampen a washcloth with cold water. He needed to cool off before anything else. I handed it off to him, instructing him to set it on his forehead before grabbing one of the hotel's provided cups and filling it with water. I was trying to recall what I’d done the last time Aspen was sick like this, what had actually helped her feel better and what we had done to help her keep liquids down.

I was fairly sure we’d had her suck on ice every few hours, for some reason that had worked best. I checked the little ice holder and grabbed a few cubes to drop into the glass before bringing it to him.

“Did you get an email?” He asked as he took the glass from me.

_What?_ “I don’t know, I haven’t checked my email recently… Why?”

“Check it, please.” He muttered, looking disconcertedly at the cup in his hands before setting it on the counter. I frowned and he groaned, “Check your email first.” He managed to make it sound as much like an order as possible when his voice was as raspy and weak as it was.

_Alright, now that sounds like the Saeran I know._ “Okay, okay.” I pulled my phone out and took a seat on the very edge of the bed, careful to not disturb the spot he was laying in. There weren’t any notifications on the app, and the updates that popped up when I opened it was nothing out of the ordinary. A few promotions and coupons from stores and restaurants back home. “I don’t see anything unless you’re suddenly looking to import a pizza from Minnesota.” I laughed.

He started to sit upright and I span quickly to pin him with a glare, he read my signal properly and laid back with an eye roll. “Check your RFA app now, please.” He asked.

_So this is related to work then…_ _I should have figured as much, why else would he want me to check my email so desperately._ Why was he worrying over this stuff when he was this sick? “Water first.” I pushed, already scrolling over to the app he mentioned.

“Briar. I-” He started, sounding exasperated. I could already tell what he was going to say so I cut him off.

“Try a tiny sip, please.” I asked, “You need fluids in you.”

With a long sigh, he did as asked, taking a short drink from the glass before setting it down again. He winced and put a hand over his stomach as if that tiny bit of water was enough to already upset it. _There’s no way, right?_

I thanked him again and opened the app, a chatroom was open at the moment - Aspen, Jaehee, and Seven currently online. _Dang… So Aspen is awake then_. Hopefully she wouldn’t notice my absence. I’d turned all my lights off thinking that if she did happen to get up she would assume I was asleep already.

“Any-” Saeran cut _himself_ off this time, coughing and hacking hard enough to freak me out a bit. Once he stopped he just sat there, gasping for breath and looking absolutely drained.

My chest ached, “Are you okay?” I questioned softly.

His head bobbed but the pained expression on his face told me otherwise. “Any messages or notifications on there?” He rasped. _Sheesh, you sound worse…_

“Not that I can see… Should there be something?” _What the heck did you do?_

Relief flashed across his face as he shook his head. “Not for you. I sent it to everyone but you, I just wanted to make sure nothing went wrong.” His voice faded out at the very end, a few less intense coughs escaped him, his eyes squeezing shut again.

_Not for me?_ A billion questions rushed through my head at that point, overwhelming me. “Saeran…” I said slowly, “Can you please explain what is going on?”

I felt bad to keep dragging the conversation out, he needed to rest. But I wasn’t use to how talkative he was, he was so much more responsive and open to answering questions then he’d ever been before and I wanted to know everything. _The fever must be getting to his head_. _Whatever filter he had before is totally off._ He was acting uncharacteristically nice as well, I didn’t have to look past angry snaps and curses to see the kindness like I usually did.

He stayed silent for a long moment, eyes still shut and face a blank slate. “What do you want me to explain?” He grumbled after a while.

_Holy crap._

I scoffed, “Uhm, everything?” I laughed, “But for right now…? I don’t know.” I scanned the room, searching for one of the billion questioned I wanted to be answered. As badly as I wanted to know what he’d done with the RFA, I was more concerned with his sudden openness to me. So I settled on asking, “Let’s start with this… Why are you suddenly okay with explaining things to me?” I paused and he opened his eyes to narrow slits, looking more exhausted. “It’s not just because you’re sick, is it? I feel like I’m taking advantage of you if that’s the case.” _And that’s the last thing I want to do._

“It’s not because of that.” He groaned and dragged his hands down his face before dropping them to his lap. He stayed silent for a while again, focused on watching his thumb loop infinity signs around each finger in what I assumed to be some sort of comforting twitch. “You’re not like everyone else I know.” He muttered, “You look at me differently… talk to me differently.” He winced like the words were painful to say.

My heart skipped a couple beats, _this isn’t because your sick?! Then…_ “What do you mean?”

“You don’t treat me like a-” His breath hitched and a gross retch cut him off. I flinched and nearly got off the bed out of fear of him puking everywhere, but he swallowed down whatever had come up in that gag, letting go of a shaky breath afterward.

_Okay, this needs to stop. I can’t sacrifice his health just to get my questions answered._ “Maybe we should stop for now,” I suggested with a timid laugh. “I don’t think your stomach likes us talking about this.”

“No” Irritation flashed across his face. “It’s my mind that doesn’t like it.” He rubbed his mouth. “Or the drugs, I don’t know.”

_What?!_ “I thought you stopped taking the drugs?!” _You literally just said that over text._

“I did.” He snapped, matching my gaze again. “But I’ve been taking them for years, Briar. All of this puking… I know that’s what it is.” He grumbled, shaking his head hard before wincing and shifting down more in the bed so just his head was against the pillows. “All that poison she used on me is coming out and it’s fucking with my head. There’s all these thoughts and memories swirling around, and I don’t know what’s real and what’s a lie and everything hurts too much to think through any of it.”

_Dear god._ That left me at a loss for words. I couldn’t think of anything to say that could help, it’s not like I knew what was true and what was a lie either. All I could do was talk through things with him, but even that wasn’t an option if talking was a problem too. “Saeran…” I muttered, chewing at my lip. _I want to help you…_

“You’re the only thing that’s _not_ confusing to me.” He continued, “That’s why I’m talking to you and decided to protect you from everything. Because I trust you. Because thinking about you doesn’t hurt like thinking about everything else does. The only thing I know is true is that I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

_Seriously?_ It felt like all my nerves were standing on end, vibrating with this nervous energy. _What did I do?_ Of course I was trying to prove to him that all I wanted was to help, maybe the whole pill problem had made that more clear for him. Without really thinking about it, I asked “Why is that?” and regretted it the moment the words left my mouth.

“I don’t-” He paused, shook his head. “No, I do know, I just…” He roared in frustration and slammed both hands to that washcloth on his forehead. _Clearly, that’s one of the things he can’t talk about then._

I stood from the bed, “okay! Okay, it’s fine. We can talk about everything later when you’re feeling better. I don’t want you hurting because of my stupid questions.” _Just please stay open, this is nice._ I grabbed the food I brought from home and set it on the table next to the glass of water he’d barely touched. “You should try drinking more, maybe chew on some ice? If that stays down you should try a bit of food too. You’ll just feel worse if you don’t get nutrients in your body.”

He didn’t say anything, just adjusted slightly in the bed and grumbled. _You’re so stubborn about this._ I couldn’t blame him, it was hard to eat or drink with the constant threat of throwing up lingering on the mind.

 

After assuring he was comfortable and didn’t need anything more, I took a seat in that corner chair. I putzed around on my phone, switching between social media and games to pass the time, hopeful he may lull off to sleep in the silence of the room.

The phone buzzed, startling me. A notification from Seven flashed across the top of the screen and my heart skipped a good ten beats. I glanced to Saeran for a moment, considering telling him that the guy had messaged me… but it wasn’t necessarily anything serious. _Let him rest as long as possible_. I checked the message first.

> **707:** Hey, Brrrriiiarrr?  
>  **Briar:** yes, Seven?  
>  **707:** I see something in your messenger

My breath caught in my throat, _oh god._

> **Briar:** Uh… what do you see?  
>  **707:** there’s some chat log open…

_Holy shit, he’s right._ I’d completely forgotten our chat was still open. “Saeran!” I said a bit too loudly.

He shot upright, barely grabbing that washcloth before it fell off his head. He looked disoriented like he’d _almost_ fallen asleep and I mentally cursed at myself for disturbing him. “What? What? What’s going on?!” He said in a similarly freaked out tone.

“Seven found our chat log.”

His face went pale and he launched from the bed, stumbling a bit in the process before reaching the desk. “Shit, shit, shit.” He tapped quickly at the computer, fingers flying over the keyboard, faster than I’d ever seen Aspen’s go. _How even?! I thought she was the fastest!_

I bounced from the chair and stepped over next to him, partially wanting to see what he was doing and partially wanting to be there in case he went light headed again. The screen was covered in all these different windows full of what I knew was code but looked like nothing more than numbers and letters scrambled together haphazardly.

The phone buzzed again and Saeran jumped, his eyes wide in fear as he glanced down to my hands before shaking his head hard and focusing back on the screen.

> **707:** I can’t actually open it. Which is weird  
>  **707:** was someone messaging you?  
>  **707:** was it unknown??  
>  **Briar:** No? Not since that first day…  
>  **Briar:** I can’t see what your talking about either?

Saeran hit one final key, hard, and my phone froze, screen fritzing out like it usually did when he cleared our conversation before going black.

“It’s gone, right?” He asked, voice harsh.

“It should be,” I answered, reopening the app and checking to make sure before nodding when I saw all our messages had been erased.

He dropped into the desk chair with a long sigh, looking stressed and irritated.

_Of course something like this would happen now…_ “He said he couldn’t open the chat log.” I assured, “It’s fine.”

He ran his hands through his hair. “Let’s hope he isn’t lying about that. If he saw those messages…” He made that weird growling noise before saying “fucking hell.” Under his breath and dropping his head to the desk.

“I think he would have freaked out on me more if he had seen the messages. It’s fine.”

“It’s not _fine_.” He snapped, startling me. He sat upright fast and glanced to the computer screen with a deep crease in his brow. “I’m such a fucking idiot. Why the hell did I leave that open?!” The acidity in his voice made me cringe.

“You are _not_ an idiot. Don’t say that.” _How can someone so good at computers, rivaling a famous hacker even, think they’re an idiot?!_ “I figured you left it open so I could contact you while I was walking over here.”

“Well, I should have _fucking_ closed it!” He snapped again, “If I can’t even keep that straight how the hell am I going to keep you safe from The Savior.” All the color in his face drained again and his breath hitched.

My heart rammed in my chest, “Saeran! Calm down!”

He looked ready to say something else in response but a look of disgust suddenly flashed across his face and he grabbed the trash bin quickly, shoving his head into it as he retched and coughed dryly.

I stumbled back a step at the next gag, thankful I wasn’t a sympathetic vomiter… but my gorge still rose at the sound of liquid splattering the bottom of the bin. He coughed and hacked a while longer before shivering violently and setting the trash down under the desk - out of my sight. He looked weak and defeated as he slumped backward in the chair.

My phone buzzed again and we _both_ tensed up.

I slipped the thing into my back pocket and hesitantly put my hand on his warm shoulder. He flinched, _I guess that’s a normal reaction to touch for him? He’s flinched every single time I’ve touched him..._ My heart slammed in my chest again as my mind jumped to assume things about that, but I shoved the thought away to be mulled over later on. Now wasn’t the time to freak out over the past. “It was a small mistake. It’s fine, everything is okay.”

“A small mistake?!” He snapped, voice cracking. That intense mix of fear and anger had returned to his gaze, “A small mistake could get you _killed_ , Briar!” He roared, swaying after the words had stopped ringing in my ears and he grabbed for the bin before taking a shaking breath and setting it back down slowly.

It was my turn to shiver and I rubbed at my arms. _Killed… I know you can’t answer questions easily right now but that’s a pretty big word to use so suddenly…_ “That ‘Savior’ of yours then… she’ll kill me if she finds me? That’s what I’m assuming from this.” I didn’t like the way my voice shook, I didn’t want to sound as scared as I felt.

There goes all the color again, all the anger vanished leaving pure fear all over his face. This time he did throw up when he grabbed the bin. I cringed, _how do you still have anything in you to puke up?!_ “Sh-she’d do worse.” He stuttered, voice suddenly extremely unsteady and filled with this fearful uncertainty. It echoed through the puke bin. “She’ll rip every bit of you away, break you down until you’re just a hollow shell. Then she’ll make you work for her. Like a damn puppet.”

The shiver that racked through my body at those words left me feeling numb. “O-oh.”

His shoulders bunched up again and he dry heaved a few times before returning the bin to it’s hidden spot under the desk. He kept his head down, his knuckles turning white as he vice gripped his thigh. His voice still trembled, “I w-won’t let it happen, Briar. I promise I’ll do everything I can to stop it from happening. So, please… Please don’t…” He stopped and rubbed at his face.

_What is happening?_ He’d been yelling curse words and calling himself an idiot a few seconds ago… Why the sudden switch? Were the drugs really that bad that they were completely wrecking his emotions like this? Or is he just that scared of this woman? He sounds so vulnerable and broken… _Like she ripped away everything about him? And made him into a puppet?_

That had to have happened to him too, how else would he know such torture was occurring?

A fire of anger ignited in my gut. I didn’t like that woman before but now... _Who could hurt someone like this? Who could tear them to pieces?! What did he do to deserve something like that!?_

“Please don’t what?” I asked, keeping my voice as steady and calm as I possibly could when it felt like every part of me was trembling.

He was quiet for a long time, rubbing at his face before saying, “Don’t leave me alone… Don’t stop… talking to me because of that… I promise… I promise I’ll keep you safe from her, just please don’t leave me.”

_... Yeah… I think my heart just shattered._ “I won’t,” I said with a bit too much emotion in each word. I sounded angry and he’d clearly heard it that way too as he flinched again and dropped his head between his shoulders like he was trying to hide from something.

_... What happened to you…_

I took a breath, forced myself to calm down and speak clearly. “I’m not going to stop talking to you or leave you alone. I’m here to help you, and I’ll be here to help you as long as you let me.” _You need it as badly as I did..._

He looked up hesitantly, all the fear in his eyes making my stomach twist up in knots that actually hurt. “The more you know… The more you talk to me… The more danger you’ll be in.” He said quietly, “You still…” He stopped and looked ready to puke again.

_Like I’m going to stop talking to you after all of this… You’re crazy._ “I’m not going to stop talking to you, Saeran.” I laughed lightly. “I kind of already made this commitment when I chose to keep messaging you that first night.” _I chose to put myself in a dangerous position… I’m not going to take that back now that he’s opening up to me._

I trusted that he knew what he was doing, how to keep me safe from this crazed woman.

He stared at me, eyes still wide with fear.

So I continued, “And when I promised to keep you and everything we talk about a secret… and lied to my best friend about who I was talking too multiple times… and lied about what I did last night, and am going to lie about from tonight.”

His gaze dropped then, some of that fear started to slip away… a smidge of relief appearing.

“I need you to explain things to me, though.” He flinched and I quickly added, “Not as like... A conditional or anything, but… I just want to know what’s happening. What has happened.”

“I will explain.” He sighed, closing his eyes. “I can… I can do that. Later.”

“Everything?” I pushed.

“Yes, everything.”

 

> **707:** Huh… it disappeared  
>  **Briar:** My phone just glitched out too  
>  **707:** that’s odd… and you really weren’t talking with anyone?  
>  **Briar:** no, not recently  
>  **707:** ...ok, well I’m glad nothing happened to you then!!  
>  **707:** tell me right away if you ever get any weird messages!  
>  **Briar:** will do ^^  
>  **707:** oh! Did you get an email too?  
>  **Briar:** yeah, about some Mint Eye place? It’s freaky looking.  
>  **707:** yea, just delete it please haha  
>  **Briar:** will do. Thanks for checking up Seven  
>  **707:** ^^

 

Saeran showed me the thing he’d sent to the RFA after I’d forced him back to the bed and opened those messages from Seven. An advertisement for a place called Mint Eye which he gave a vague explanation of, talking about as much as he could before he aggravated his headache any further than he already had. It was the ‘organization’ he was working for, a place where the weak were considered strong and everyone strived to reach some ‘paradise’ under that crazy woman’s rule. He didn’t disagree when I called it a cult, hadn’t reacted much at all to the word choice. Even grumbled something about a weird oath and prayers being part of the mess when I’d brought it up.

He’d managed to tell me he hadn’t joined voluntarily, either, before rolling onto his stomach and burying his face in a pillow. Which was far more than enough for now, considering his condition. I had a promise to hear more, that’s all that mattered.

I cleaned out the trash bin by myself, which he threw a really meek and unenthusiastic fit over. It didn’t bother me much, I’d expected to have to deal with throw up when I chose to head over here and I’d dealt with much nastier messes in the past. It was better to keep it relatively empty anyway and he agreed to drink more of the water as a ‘repayment’ for cleaning it out.

The glass was mostly empty when I took a seat in the corner chair again. My exhaustion from the sleepless night had just started to hit now that the clock was approaching midnight. It’d been a long, messy day and my brain was overflowing with all this new information to mull over and try to make sense of.

Mint Eye, a crazy cult that was lead by an even crazier woman that had forcefully employed a hacker to attack the RFA. There were still so many questions I had surrounding that… Though the most pressing ones were why the RFA specifically was a target, and how Saeran had been tied up in the mess. It had to have something to do with his oppositions to V and Seven. V was a liar, and Seven was a hacker… but beyond that, why did those two matter so much? Was it just Saeran’s opposition to them that resulted in the attack towards the RFA? Or did this whole cult have something against them?

Why was V lying about Rika dying anyway?

_And Saeran…_ There were thousands of questions I had about him. It seemed like he was at the center of everything but I wasn’t sure if that was just my perception of the mess making it seem that way. He was connected to a lot for sure… But why? How? _And all that flinching at a touch or raised voices_ … Again, my own perception was probably toying with my abilities to logically think through those actions, but I had a terrible feeling that was remnants of defense from abuse. _Plus the fear that I would stop talking to him? And leave him alone?_ V had betrayed him, but was one person enough to cause a fear like that?

_I could keep a book with all these questions, it’s hard to keep them all straight._ I could probably fill three whole pages with information and questions pertaining to the RFA, Mint Eye, and Saeran. I could make a whole interview out of it… Which was completely unnecessary and would probably be extremely intimidating to the guy.

I pulled out my phone and made a quick note of what I knew and what I wanted to know, trying my best to write down everything I could remember from each of those three areas. The info dump did help to clear my mind quite a bit, seeing it all written out like that made it easier to think clearly.

Saeran sitting up made me jump and I met his weary gaze timidly. “What are you doing in the corner?” He questioned with that strained rasp of a voice.

I shrugged, “I thought you might want some space.”

Those pale blue eyes narrowed, _I see you’re feeling better after that emotional spell… That’s good._ “What’s the point of you being here if you’re just going to sit quietly in the corner? You could be home.”

A small grin pulled at the corners of my lips, “I guess I’m here to clean your puke bin and harass you about drinking water and eating food.” _Otherwise known as being a mom._ I chuckled at my own thought.

His eyes rolled and he jerked his chin towards the bed, “Just come over here.”

My heart hit my stomach, b _ut it’s late and as nice as you seem to be your still a guy._ What was I even thinking? I was being ridiculous. _Zen is rubbing off on me, I’m getting worried about stupid things I normally never even think of._ I could feel heat rising to my cheeks and I looked away fast. _He’s fine. It’s fine._

I shook it all off and stood up, giving him a curt nod before sitting cross-legged on the other side of the bed. He watched me settle down before flopping back into the pillows again and draping an arm across his forehead.

I was about to comment on the fact that he hadn’t puked up all that water yet… But he spoke first. “You were going to tell me about the other time you were followed?”

_Oh yeah,_ I couldn’t help but laugh. “Man, I feel like we’re going in circles.”

He stared at me, face devoid of emotion. “Welcome to my life.”

“Yeah? Are you infecting me with this cycling problem?” I laughed again.

He shrugged, “Sorry.”

“No need to apologize, I put myself in this position.” I smiled.

One corner of his mouth twitched into the tiniest, almost unnoticeable smirk… But on him, it might as well have been a full-blown grin. An oddly warm, fluttery feeling lodged itself in my chest - like a baby bird taking roost in my rib cage. _A smile… that’s so nice._

“So you want to know about me now?” I sighed thoughtfully, “What do you not already know? You’re a hacker, you know my records are missing before sixteen.”

“Pretend I don’t know anything.” He grumbled, moving his arm so it covered his face. “Because I want to know everything.”

_Everything…_ I let go of a long sigh and leaned back on my hands. What he was asking about was a long story and I tried to cut things down as simple as possible as I told it to him. About my first year in school, when Aspen and I were studying in Twin Cities – hours away from our hometown where no one knew about us or our pasts. What had been a real escape from reality and those pitiful expressions on everyone’s faces. “I was walking back to the dorms from a night class. Alone, of course, because I’m the only one of my friends who was willing to take a night class.”

“What kind of class?” Saeran interrupted.

“Film. We watched movies and kind of dissected and analyzed everything about them. It was really fun.” I answered. “But, yeah, no one else would take it with me. So I was walking home around eleven and the campus isn’t terribly dangerous but there was always rumors of terrible things that happened at night.” _Stalking, muggings, theft, car accidents…_ It really hadn’t been all that different from any other city but as a freshman, afraid of the now very open and real world, everything seemed much worse than it really was.

“I’m sure you can guess what happened.” I continued on, explaining how there was a creepy guy following behind me for a few blocks. That I’d hesitated to continue onto the darker, less busy part of campus but had no choice but to walk through it. How he’d caught up so quickly and shoved me off the path like it was as easy as picking up a toothpick. “I ended up in a bush, on the ground…” My mind shut down then as the rest of the events rushed up on me.

When I came to Saeran’s hand was on my ankle and his brow was creased in worry, his eyes dark with fear. “Briar, what happened.” His voice was soft and soothing.

_So soft, I didn’t think you were capable of that._

“It wasn’t… the worst thing that could happen.” I said with a small smile. “A big group of frat guys walked down the path before anything could happen and I kicked the guy while he was waiting for them to pass.”

Saeran’s breath hitched as he realized what _could_ have and almost _did_ happen that night. It must have been stressful enough to aggravate his stomach because he flipped over and vomited again. _Well, there goes all that water..._ I cringed at the sound, at the loud retches and the way his back lurched with each wave. The next moment my hand was on his back, the action so mindless that _I_ was shocked when I felt the jolt that shot through him and the way he tensed as I left it there.  _He never moves away when I touch him… so I’m going to assume it doesn’t bother him..._

“I didn’t… see anything about that… in your records.” He said through panted breaths.

“I never reported it to the police, nothing actually happened and the guy was wearing a mask so…” I sighed, “I know I should have reported it, but I was too scared at the time.”

He gagged again and I impulsively rubbed circles into his back. “I’m sorry for making you sick with that story.” I said with a small laugh, “probably wasn’t the best time to tell it anyway.”

He resituated himself on the pillows again, the retching and gagging finally subsiding. The tension in his back didn’t go away though and I continued rubbing circles between his shoulder blades.

“You should have reported it.” He mumbled tiredly.

_It’s something I regret…_ “Let's change the topic, for now, I’m sure there’s something not stressful or depressing we could talk about that won’t make you throw up.” I grabbed my phone with my free hand and opened a music app. “Or we can just listen to music. That helps when I get headaches sometimes.”

He grumbled, “Whatever you want.” Some of the tension released, but his muscles were still bunched up. I widened the circles I was rubbing to include his shoulders and mid back and more of the stress went away. _Just relax…_

I turned on an instrumental playlist I’d thrown together years ago and made sure the volume wasn’t too high before setting the phone out of the way. “I guess I can think of something to talk about. If you promise to tell me about your past too, then I can talk about mine.” I wagered.

It was quiet for a moment before he sighed, the tension in his muscles suddenly back again. He sat upright, rubbing at his head and muttering, “I have something that can answer some of your questions about me.”

He stood up, swaying on his feet for a second before crossing the room to grab something from the overstuffed duffel bag. It looked like a really, really old and beaten up leather-bound notebook. He sat down, flipping the pages with his thumbs before reluctantly handing it to me and laying back down similarly to how he was before getting up.

Though the book was nothing more than paper and cardboard, it felt extremely heavy in my hands… Like the significance of it had a physical presence within its pages. It made it all the more intimidating to open the front cover.

“I’ve had that since I was ten.” He grumbled in a rather apathetic sounding voice. “I haven’t looked in it for a year or two, I don’t even remember what’s at the beginning anymore. But it’ll probably tell you everything you want to know.”

I finally, carefully, opened the cover and swallowed my nerves as I saw the poorly scrawled words, definitely the handwriting of an elementary school kid. Saeran’s diary. “You’re seriously giving me your diary?” I asked, baffled by how little he seemed to care for the thing.

He turned his head to face me, “Is that weird?”

“Uh, yes? Wouldn’t this have like… All your secrets in it?”

“I don’t know. It’s probably a bunch of bullshit about my mom and brother and V at the start.” He grumbled, “I’m going to tell you everything anyway, what difference does it make if you just read it.”

_Brother…? You’ve known V since you were ten?!_

_Holy shit._ That would explain why V’s betrayal would be so monumental and influential over him, then. Someone he knew that long suddenly turning their back on him, abandoning him.

“You know not to let anyone see that.” He continued, “Seriously, that’s worse than someone hearing my name.”

I nodded, flipping to the next page of the book. A child’s hand drawing of what looked like two boys smiling took up most of the page, a few sentences of scribbled words sat beneath it. The sort of short, barely legible sentences kids are taught to write so early on in their school years. _Okay, this is stressful._ Even if he was okay with me reading through it, it felt like too much. I’d never gone through anyone’s diary… I didn’t even have one myself. There had been scraps of paper with extremely depressive writing from my childhood, but those had been burned with the pictures of my mother by Aspen’s suggestion. _We destroyed everything from those days._

I didn’t know if I could do it. “What if I want to ask questions about it though?” I said, glancing at his sleepy face. “I know I’ll want to talk with you while reading it, and you can’t talk about this stuff right now.”

“Then wait, I don’t know.” He muttered, “You can take it as long as you don’t let someone else get it.”

“I won’t. I’d never…” I answered, looking back down at that drawing. _The boys have red hair… did he have red hair before bleaching it?_

Saeran shifted around a bit, “Does that count as a favor?” He grumbled.

A smile cracked across my face at that, _all these darn favors… Who owed what at this point?_ “We don’t have to keep doing this whole favor thing, I don’t mind answering questions or doing things for you,” I said with a laugh.

“Can you… do what you were doing before then?” He asked with just a bit of a sheepish tone, a tint of pink painted his cheeks.

I nearly laughed but managed to catch myself. “What, rub your back?”

He nodded, the pink growing and darkening to a more reddish blush.

“Of course.” _So you do like that then… Good._

 

 

I spent at least an hour telling happy and stupid stories about Aspen and me, throwing in a few bits about my dad - whatever I could manage to tell without getting too emotional. Saeran contributed with small questions and further prodding a few times before falling mostly silent, just nodding tiredly as I talked. My goal was to talk him to sleep, so most of it was rambling anyway.

He practically melted into the bed with my massage, which is what the back rub really became as all the muscles started to relax. He had so many knots in his shoulders and along his spine that I questioned how he’d been able to do anything without being in pain. My hands were pretty exhausted by the time I’d worked out what I hoped was the last one… and I was trying my best to not feel awkward about the whole thing. It wasn’t like I hadn’t done the same thing for Aspen before…

After I was certain he’d fallen asleep I turned off the music streaming through my phone and checked the time. There was no way I was going to walk back at two in the morning so I situated myself at the opposite end of the bed and tried to get comfortable. I would leave at the crack of dawn… before Aspen was even awake… _It’s not like Saeran cares if I stay anyway, he would have told me to leave if he did…_

It wasn’t easy to fall asleep and questions were nagging at my tired mind… Spinning in never-ending circles. _I really am infected with this cycling problem…_ I couldn’t hold myself back any longer so I decided to read the first page of the journal.

There wasn’t much, though I found the childish writing rather endearing. A comment about hiding the book from his mother, which only added to my belief that there was abuse in his past. A name for this mysterious brother he’d mentioned, the person who had given him the book to start with… Saeyoung… _Where is he then? How does he relate to all of this?_

He had to relate somehow… Saeran was too tied up in this mess, I had no doubt his brother had to be as well.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _ god, this is long. I'm sorry;;;; _


	16. 2.4

**2.4**

Buzzing unraveled the tangled web of dreams I was trapped in and pulled me from the foggy, non-restful sleep. My groggy mind mixed the remnants of that odd dream with the shadowed, foreign surroundings of the room I was in - trying to tell me I was locked in a jail cell in the basement of Mint Eye, that the crazed woman was coming soon. The fear that erupted in response cleared the exhaustion from my system and I pushed myself up, eyes falling to a shadowed lump across the bed. I could just barely make out strands of white, pink-tipped hair spread across the pillow and the events of last night hit me like a brick. _Saeran… Right._

The fear dissipated, the dark, creepy surroundings looking like a hotel room once again. Somehow I’d managed to fall asleep curled up in the corner of the bed and my whole body was stiff and sore as a result. It was a mistake to lay on my wounded arm, that hurt worse than it had yesterday. 

Another buzz caught my attention, a bright flash of light warding off the shadows. My phone sat atop the diary, face up, on the floor. A long trail of notifications filled up the screen, mostly texts from Aspen, and a missed call or two from the RFA app. _Crap, did she realize I wasn’t home last night?_

I grabbed the device from the ground, wincing as the bandaging on my arm slipped and pulled at the healing wound. It must have come undone at some point in the night.

The trail of messages started from eight in the morning and continued all the way up until about a minute ago.

> **Aspen:** Where are you?  
>  **Aspen:** Did you go out for a coffee or somethin?  
>  **Aspen:** hey… kinda freaking out here…  
>  **Aspen:** After that weird email everyone got last night. Your just gone?  
>  **Aspen:** nothing happened right???  
>  **Aspen:** pleeease answer me…

_Dang…_ Well, at least she gave me some form of an out… It was pure luck she hadn’t realized I’d been gone since last night. I’d have to be more careful if I planned on visiting with Saeran frequently.

> **Briar:** Hey! Sorry!  
>  **Briar:** Yeah, I woke up really early and couldn’t fall back asleep. So I went out for breakfast. I should have left a note. Sorry!

I sat upright carefully, trying my best to not jostle the bed enough to wake up Saeran. That was when I noticed the thin blanket that had been draped over me in the night, I felt a small smile play on my lips and tugged the fabric up to wrap around my shoulders. _How sweet._

> **Aspen:** phew, okay.  
>  **Aspen:** yeah leave a note next time so I don’t have a whole heart attack lmao  
>  **Briar:** Sorry!! I’ll be back soon.  
>  **Aspen:** V’s coming over around noon jsyk~~  
>  **Aspen:** Seven is coming over too, but shhh keep it a secret. I’m trying to surprise him ^^

_Crap._ That must have been what those missed calls were, I’d totally forgotten V was planning on calling me in the morning, that we’d even been planning on meeting today. _Way to go._ I sent off a message apologizing for missing his calls and explaining myself in terms of the lie I’d used on Aspen, going the extra step to look up some breakfast restaurant near the apartment. _I should grab something from there on the way back, just to make it seem even more believable._

Seven and V… of course those two would be over today, the two people I was the most curious and wary of. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to face either of them after last night. 

My gaze trailed over to Saeran as he shifted around under the comforter, mumbling something incomprehensible and sighing sleepily. The peaceful look on his face filled me with this overwhelming sense of responsibility to put an end to whatever hell he was wading through. To find some way for his face to look so relaxed while he was awake as well.

A _lot_ had changed after last night. A new goal and a new promise. A new way to look at the RFA, the hacker, and the organization behind all of it. Whatever conflict I’d had about being pulled between helping Saeran and being a part of the RFA had died off, I was floating on my own separate island now. Striving to help both.

“Briar,” called a thick, rumbling voice.

I met his sleepy gaze. _Where are you, though? Still on the side of Mint Eye?_ “Good morning,” I said with a soft smile. _He can’t possibly still be on their side._

He grumbled and sat upright, snarling a yawn before flicking on the lamp on the bedside table. The sudden burst of brightness filled my vision with little black floaters and I attempted to rub them away unsuccessfully.

“How are you feeling?” I asked as I blinked away the spots, matching those blue eyes once I could see again. The bags underneath weren’t anywhere near as bad as they had been yesterday, some of the color returned to his face. The sleep must have helped then, he didn’t look as sick.

He rubbed at his face, “I don’t know.”

“Better?” I leaned forward to set a hand on his shoulder. Even though he could see me approaching he still flinched at the touch, _sheesh…_ “You don’t feel as warm as you did last night.”

“Okay.” He muttered, staring at me for a long moment before tossing his legs off the side of the bed and standing up slowly. “Maybe it’s better then.”

I stood up as well, folding up the spare blanket he’d lent me and setting it on the bed. “I hope that is the case, but either way, you should get some more rest today. You can have the food I brought, and try to keep drinking water throughout the day.” I said, assembling the rest of my belongings in preparation to leave.

He paused what he was doing to glance back at me warily, “you’re leaving?”

Something in his eyes made my chest feel hollow, “I probably should, Aspen’s waiting for me and V will be at the apartment soon.” I said, feeling compelled to say “sorry for leaving so fast.”

His eyebrow twitched, eyes narrowing. The drawer slammed shut rather violently, a stack of fresh clothes in his hands. “Why is he going to be there?”

I flinched before answering, “He wants to get to know Aspen and me better since we’re a part of the RFA now.”

He grumbled, “bullshit. He’s gonna brainwash you two.”

“He won’t. I have you to keep me sane and you know how I feel about V.”

His jaw set and he stared at me with this intensity for a long moment before shaking his head and glaring at the corner. “Okay.”

I slipped my shoes on quickly and tossed my bag over my shoulder, “Again, sorry for leaving so fast, but Aspen was kind of freaking out about me being gone this morning.”

He waved me off, “don’t worry about it. Sorry for keeping you.”

“No need to apologize, I chose to stay.” I gave him a bright smile, “So, I’ll... “ I paused, realizing I couldn’t actually message him later like I was about to say. “Uh… I’ll hear from you later…? Maybe?” I laughed timidly.

“Of course.” He said fast, the abruptness of the answer startling _both_ of us. He shook his head again and grumbled, “Yeah, I’ll… I’ll get a hold of you somehow later on. Don’t expect it to be through the RFA app, though.”

_Huh…? How else could he contact me?_ I shook the thoughts from my head, he was an expert hacker, I had no doubt he could find some other way to contact me. “Sounds good. I’ll talk to you later then.”

 

 

V was a very tall, lanky man with hair so blue it almost seemed fake. How he managed to keep it that vibrant was beyond me. His eyes, though slightly red and swollen from what I assumed were allergies, were just as shockingly bright, the combination so stunning and noticeable that both Aspen and I couldn’t help but comment once he’d taken a seat in the living room. Which made it clear that he was absolutely terrible at taking compliments, his face went totally red as we brought it up and he somehow managed to redirect the conversation immediately - taking the subject off himself and instead complimenting our decor.

I let Aspen take the lead with that conversation while I slipped into the kitchen to prepare some drinks and snacks. I took the moment away to calm my already jittery nerves and attempt to bury all of the prior judgments I’d made about V on the basis of Saeran’s words. _I don’t know the whole story, he may not be as bad as Saeran has made him out to be._

When I brought the tray of favors out they had moved on to discuss that email about Mint Eye. Apparently, it was riling up a lot of stress in the members despite how vague it had been.

I took my usual seat in the armchair, sitting perched atop my knees. “What was that about anyway?” I asked, “Seven told me to just delete it.”

Aspen shrugged with an ambiguous frown on her lips, “all we really know is that the hacker sent it. Seven couldn’t find anything more specific.”

V sighed heavily, “this hacker is very vicious and skillful. To make Luciel doubt his abilities is quite the feat. I’ve never seen him as frazzled as he is now.”

_How well do you know Seven…?_ I rolled my shoulders, maybe it was best to leave the questioning to Aspen for now.

She shuddered, irritation clear in the set of her jaw. “Why is this even happening to begin with? Seriously, what does this person think they’ll gain from dropping strangers in the messenger? Why keep messing with all of us like this?”

“I would like to know the intentions as well, though I am thankful nothing has happened to either of you after all this time. I’m hopeful this means no danger will befall you like I was worried it may.” V answered in a very genuine, caring sounding voice.

_Nothing bad will happen at the hands of the hacker… But he’s not the one to worry about…_

“I don’t think anything bad will happen either.” A hesitant smile slipped across Aspen’s mouth. “With you, Seven, and Jumin around, I can’t imagine anything going wrong.”

“Thank you for your trust. Yes, we will do everything in our power to keep you both safe.” V replied, once again, sounding very genuine. I discreetly scanned his face, looking for any sign that he was being dishonest but coming up short.

The conversation fell into much simpler topics, V asking some very general questions about both of us. Interests, hobbies, aspirations. It almost felt like an interview. I left most of the talking to Aspen again, she could answer for both of us much easier than I could. Though I still contributed when I had something worthwhile to add. Somehow, my instruments came up, V taking a lot of interest in the fact that I played quite a few. It was a challenge to steer Aspen away from running upstairs to grab my guitar. I wasn’t about to play in front of anyone. Thankfully, V had no problem with my choice. It was just Aspen that was far too eager to hear me play.

My focus laid more in attempting to get a read on this controversial man. He sounded so kind and wholesome. Based off what I had gathered up to this point, I couldn’t imagine him ever doing anything to wrong someone in good conscious. Though I still believed Saeran’s words, I failed to understand how V was capable of either lying about Rika’s death or betraying someone.

Was he hiding his true self behind some mask of kindness and honesty?

If so I could not see it whatsoever.

I _had_ picked up that he was the type of person that cared deeply for others, to the point that he was willing to sacrifice and discredit himself for them. The way he spoke of everyone in the RFA made that very clear, redirecting praise to them at every possible chance. Though that wasn’t a good thing, I didn’t want to see anyone thinking negatively of themselves in such a way, it certainly did not support this liar and betrayer story. If anything, it disproved it.

_Unless the reason he’s lying is to protect someone…?_

There was clearly a reason he was doing what he was… Maybe the reason was something out of his control? _But why would he hide such struggles from the RFA?_

Aspen’s phone buzzed and she jumped from the couch excitedly, a huge grin on her face. “Seven’s here!” She dashed to the hallway, “I’ll be right back!” The door slamming closed cut off the last bit of that sentence and I couldn’t help but laugh at her eagerness.

V chuckled as well, “those two really get along well.”

“They do,” _and it worries me._

“I’m very glad we were able to do this today, Briar,” V said. His smiles were contagious, so broad and full of compassion. “I feel like I know you and Aspen much better now that we’ve met and talked in person.” 

“Likewise, V.” _Though getting to know you and observing you has done nothing to help me understand what is going on here._ I wanted to believe something unfair had occurred and led him to this strange point. “Thanks again for accepting us into the RFA.”

He chuckled softly, “it was the only option I could see at the time, I am glad it has gone as well as it has.” He leaned back in the chair, gaze drifting off to peer around the apartment with a complex look on his face. “With you two around, I wonder if we could handle hosting a party again.”

That took me by surprise, “you haven’t planned one since Rika passed away, right?” He flinched as her name came up, a blip of something flashing on his face. It was gone too fast for me to even guess what it was. “She must have played a big roll in them.”

He adjusted himself, leaning his elbows on his knees with a quiet sigh. “She did. She was in charge of the guest lists, which was not an easy job.”

“I imagine not,” I replied, wanting to ask more about Rika to see if anything would set off a fuse in him. But I felt terrible even saying her name, even if she wasn’t dead, it was clear something had happened that made the topic painful. _I’ll leave the questions to Saeran. It’s better that way._

The door banged again, two sets of laughter filling the air as both Aspen and Seven walked in. I twisted around to greet the two, happy to see Seven was smiling and laughing again as though his dour moods hadn’t happened. _Hopefully_ whatever had been bothering him had passed and he wasn’t ‘acting’ like he said he would.

“Whoa! V!” He cheered as he noticed the man on the couch, eyes going wide and filling with excitement. “I didn’t know you were going to be here!”

Aspen giggled, “I thought I’d surprise you.”

“It’s nice to see you, Luciel, it’s been a while. I hope work hasn’t been too hard on you, the hacker problem is more than enough to worry over.” V commented.

“Well, you know, work is work.” He said with a weak, unconvincing laugh. “I’m just happy I was able to sneak past Vanderwood to take a short break.”

“Vanderwood?” I questioned without thinking.

Aspen took her seat on the couch once again, waving towards the other armchair for Seven to claim before saying, “the ‘maid’.” with air quotes.

V laughed and Seven awkwardly shuffled around as he took his seat.

“Anyway!” The redhead shouted, dragging the room’s attention back to him. “I’ve decided to take up Aspen’s offer to help with the hacker! So my workload will be a tiny bit lighter now.”

_What…?!_ A shiver shot down my spine. _Aspen is chasing him too…?_

“Really?” V said, sounding just as uncomfortable with the idea.

Seven nodded, “I’m going to have her rip that email to shreds and try to find anything more than some fake sender ID.” He directed a toothy grin to my friend, her face lighting up like a struck match. “With a name like Mint Eye, I’m sure she can scrap up some quality research without too much of difficulty.”

“Totally, I’m an expert on research.” Aspen said, “I’ll take a challenge.”

“A true thrill seeker.” Seven commented.

“Well, that’s very nice of you, Aspen,” V said with a hesitant smile.

I rubbed at my arms, not able to get over the fact that now my best friend was going to search for the guy I had just forged a friendship with. I probably looked just as unsettled as V.

“So, Briar,” Seven said and for some reason my heart jumped into my throat, anticipating that he was going to accuse me of something. “Hope I didn’t scare you too bad with that hidden chat log stuff last night.”

“Wait, what?” Aspen asked before I could sputter some stupid crap in response to that. Her head whipped back and forth as she looked between us confusedly. “Hidden chat log, what happened?”

“Yeah, I think the hacker was trying to message her last night. There was this blank text log on her account that I couldn’t open for some weird reason.” Seven continued, all that excitement fading from his face as he became more solemn and serious.

The hairs at the back of my neck stood on end, something sparking in my mind. _That look_ … It was something I imagined was rare to see on Seven’s face but… I had seen it somewhere else, it was so maddeningly familiar that it was driving my heart rate to skyrocket and my breaths to come shorter and shorter. I _just_ saw that _exact_ same face today, I know I did.

The first page of the diary was pulled to the forefront of my mind, the two redheaded boys. The missing brother.

_No. I’m crazy. What am I thinking?_

Some part of my subconscious already knew, it kept tossing up images of Saeran’s face in comparison. As if it was yelling at me that I was an absolute idiot for not realizing this any sooner. The shape of the nose, the jaw, the eye shape, the hair texture, _everything_. Seven looked like a bulkier, healthier, less broken version of Saeran.

In fact, they looked… _identical_.

_Holy. Shit._

It felt like my lungs had failed. _This can’t be real_.

“Briar?” Aspen called, pulling me from the reverie.

Everyone was staring at me with varying amounts of confusion and worry. My heart was pounding loud enough to ring in my ears. “Uh,... Sorry, sorry. The thing about the hacker. It kind of freaked me out.” I laughed, the sound so clearly fake I wanted to slap myself for even attempting it. _I need to read more of the diary. I need to know if I’m just crazy or not._

Seven and Aspen seemed to believe the lie, V had become more hesitant.

“It’s okay!” Aspen said, “they didn’t actually get a hold of you, right? I’m sure it was going to be some crap about that email anyway.” She rushed the words out.

“Yeah, it’s fine. We’ll keep you safe.” Seven added, “I put some extra security down on your phone so they won’t be able to do that again. If they even try too I’ll get notified.” He said it with this huge smile like somehow that would be reassuring to me… Rather than as distressing as it was.

_Wonderful._ How the heck was I going to get in touch with him then?!

_I need to calm down, stop thinking about it for now._ I forced myself to get comfortable in the chair again, ignoring the way my heart thundered and nerves rattled with the adrenaline suddenly coursing through my veins. I sucked down breaths as steadily as I could and was grateful for the sympathetic smile on Aspen’s face. _Grateful that she believed that lie…_

“Thanks for the help, Seven.” I had to force the words out and the smile I tugged across my lips felt disgusting. _You’re stopping me from talking to your brother._ Dear god.

“I’m sorry this happened to begin with, Briar,” V said, and I matched his gaze timidly. There was a question clear on his face, and I feared what he may have been thinking. Clearly, he hadn’t fallen for the lie like the others had. _Of course…_

Aspen bounced in her spot a few times, dragging all attention to her, “so, hey!” She shouted, popping onto her feet. “I was thinking we could play a few rounds of this game together! If everyone is up to it! It’s pretty fun!” She grinned, passing an inconspicuous look my way.

_She’s trying to change the topic. Oh, thank you, Aspen..._

“I’d love too,” I said, _as badly as I just want to run upstairs and hide. I can’t._

“Heck yeah!” Seven shouted, tossing a fist in the air excitedly.

“I’m afraid I’m not good at video games whatsoever, but I am willing to participate,” V said with a smile and a knowing glance my way. I _could_ read that look this time, his way of saying ‘this isn’t over’.

I shivered, _dang it._

 

We got through two rounds of the game before V decided it was time for him to leave. Aspen and Seven complained in a playful manner before saying their goodbyes, the ladder clearly planning on staying much later than the other guest was. I decided to make my escape then as well, informing them I wouldn’t be joining for another round as V asked me to show him the way out of the building.

I reluctantly lead the man out to the complex hallway, heading straight for the elevators. As soon as the doors shut, V turned to me with a weirdly serious yet worried expression on his face.

“Briar, I can tell you do not want to discuss this, but I’m afraid it cannot be ignored.” He said.

I let go of a rattling sigh, stuffing my shaking hands into my pockets. _What does he know?_ “What needs to be discussed, V?”

“Something happened back there, you looked absolutely horrified of Luciel.”

I sputtered off the same answer I’d given earlier, “I was just freaked out about the hacker trying to talk to me. My mind kind of shut down for a moment so I probably looked pretty stupid.” The laugh I let out was, thankfully, much more convincing than my previous ones. “It’s not like I’m afraid of Seven or anything.”

He frowned, clearly not buying the excuse. The fear that gripped my insides made me feel absolutely nauseous and for a minute I wondered if me puking all over him would distract him enough to end this conversation.

_No, that would be so rude… and disgusting._

He let go of a sigh after a minute of blankly staring at me, “Well… as mysterious and hard to trust as Luciel is, I can promise you there is nothing to fear. Though I cannot necessarily say the same for his other half. I, regretfully, just don’t know enough in that case. I really wish I did.”

My heart stopped dead and I tried my best to mask the absolute horror coming across my face. _He knows… dammit, he knows… Saeran is going to be so upset with me._ I composed myself and passed him a blank look, “I don’t know what you mean, V.”

A sad smile spread across his lips and the elevator dinged, the doors opening wide. The exit to the streets clearly visible from where we stood.

“I hope this other half of Luciel hasn’t lead you to distrust the RFA. I trust that you understand a story has multiple sides… and that there is a very important reason all sides of the story may not be clear.” He said.

_I don’t like this metaphorical speech._ “I think I understand. I only want peace for both sides.”

He seemed relieved by that, “I want the same, Briar. I hope we can discuss this more at a later date. Please… keep these things to yourself for the time being and if you could… be there for the other half… you would be doing me a great favor.”

_Great favor…? The heck does he mean?!_ I peered at him, “I hope we can talk later too… Goodbye, V.”

“Thank you, have a nice evening.” He took his leave then.

I hit the button to send the elevator back to my floor and nearly lost my composure, my breath shallowing and my knees growing weak. _What do I tell Saeran… Dear god, what do I say? How do I explain this?!_

V said to keep it to myself… _Do I keep it from Saeran?_

_No. No way. I have to tell him._

 

Seven and Aspen had decided to grab food together, extending an invitation my way as I returned to the apartment. I did my best to hide the absolute mess I was at the moment as I politely declined and made a hasty exit to my lofted room. I felt bad being relieved to hear them shut the apartment door, but Aspen was probably thankful I wasn’t joining them anyway. It was a chance for her to get alone time with Seven, which was something she clearly wanted.

_Alone time with Saeran’s brother._

I flopped onto the bed and let out a loud groan, once again thankful for the empty apartment. It’d been way too long since I’d had proper alone time and vocalizing my frustrations had never felt so good.

_I should probably run over to the hotel, though._ I needed to contact Saeran. Had to warn him about what Seven had said and what V knew… and the weird things V had been saying. _I don’t want to leave… I want to be alone._

My body was exhausted, my mind strung on its last wire from all the stress. Two nights of poor sleep with all the information I’d had to process was not easy to push through. It was hard to believe that just a month ago the worst thing I had to worry about was packing my belongings. There wasn’t an RFA, or hackers, or people faking suicides. I wasn’t worried over Aspen asking questions, or under constant threat of a crazy cult lead by an even crazier woman. 

Horror clawed at my heart and I sat upright fast, sucking down a breath to ease the sudden surge in heart rate. Tears pricked my eyes for some unknown reason, though I was sure it had to do with the exhaustion and swirling thoughts. _Stop freaking out… It’ll be fine. Trust Saeran._

My phone buzzed erratically and my nerves split all over again as I quickly pulled it out, the screen wouldn’t light up no matter how many times I messed with the buttons. It stayed totally dark and a trail of swears dripped from my lips. _Did something happen?_ _That was Saeran’s vibrate pattern._ Was this what Seven’s new security did?

_Please, no._

The screen flashed white, green text sitting at the top of the otherwise black screen after the brightness had faded. Just my name…

I tapped at it and the keyboard popped up. _The heck is going on._

> **Yes…?**  
>  It’s me, I had to wait until I knew you were alone. Don’t freak out.  
> ...Sae?  
> Yes. Hold on.  
> 

It went black again for a few seconds before code started flashing across like the first time he’d hacked into it. I couldn’t understand how I was both relieved and concerned to hear from him. _What the heck is he doing to my phone…?_ Had he found whatever Seven had installed in my phone? _Hopefully…_

My lock screen suddenly returned and I quickly entered the code, nothing looking different aside from a new app sitting at the bottom of the first page. There was no title underneath and the icon depicted a macro shot of a wild rose. A red notification bubble sat on it and I steeled against my hesitance to open it. Assuming this had to be his new method of contacting me.

A screen appeared, asking for a password and specifying to not use anything I had ever used in the past and wouldn’t be easily deciphered by someone I know. I made something up fast and entered it in, something that looked similar to the private messaging section of the RFA app appeared and a smile tugged at my lips.

> **Saeran:** Hey  
>  **Briar:** What is this?  
>  **Saeran:** I didn’t want to use the RFA app after what happened last night  
>  **Saeran:** This is a lot more secure. Their hacker won’t be able to see anything  
>  **Saeran:** I messed with some stuff in your OS too… All the tracking bugs he tried to hide are gone, so this is safe.   
> **Briar:** You made this??  
>  **Saeran:** Yes  
>  **Briar:** It looks so nice!! You did that so fast!  
>  **Saeran:** ...Uh.. thanks..  
>  **Saeran:** You can message me whenever you want now. No more walking through the streets at night just to get my attention.  
>  **Briar:** hahaha okay, good ^^

He made a whole messaging app just so we could talk…? It didn’t seem real. That had to be a lot of work, and all of that effort was spent just for me. I didn’t have a word for the feeling in my chest, but it felt nice… and it helped to wash away part of the fear and stress that had been tearing me to pieces a few moments ago.

_Saeran… you really are an amazing person, aren’t you?_

As hectic and stressful as everything had turned… at least I had gained a friend like him.

> **Briar:** Great timing by the way? I was seriously freaking out trying to figure out how to tell you about Seven’s new security stuff.   
> **Saeran:** ...yeah… I figured something like that would happen. It’s taken care of.  
>  **Briar:** Thank god you’re so smart  
>  **Saeran:** …  
>  **Briar:** How are you feeling? Is your headache still there? Have you thrown up?  
>  **Saeran:** Slight headache… haven’t thrown up.  
>  **Briar:** Were you able to eat or drink anything?  
>  **Saeran:** Yes.. both  
>  **Briar:** Good ^^ it sounds like you’re feeling better.  
>  **Saeran:** Yeah… thank you… for helping. It meant a lot.  
>  **Briar:** Anytime

_He’s feeling better… That’s good,_ _hopefully, I don’t make him feel like total crap again._ I sighed heavily, struggling to bring myself to explain everything that had happened in the last couple hours. I felt absolutely terrible, though there was no reason I should be blaming myself for what had occurred. It wasn’t like I’d flat out told V I was talking with the guy he’d abandoned… with Seven’s brother. It was an accident the man had found out.

_A horrible accident that’s going to piss Saeran off._

I couldn’t avoid telling him.

> **Briar:** um, Saeran… Something happened  
>  **Saeran:** ...what…?  
>  **Briar:** V was here. I told you about that. I didn’t tell you that Seven was visiting too though.  
>  **Saeran:** ...Briar, what happened.  
>  **Briar:** Well I realized Seven is your brother. I don’t know how I didn’t notice it any sooner.  
>  **Saeran:** ...yeah… twin….  
>  **Briar:** dear god… what happened?  
>  **Saeran:** I… can’t… give you a good answer right now. Sorry.  
>  **Briar:** That’s okay, you don’t have to be sorry.   
> **Saeran:** Read the diary if you want. It will tell you what happened. Before Mint Eye and the pills fucked my whole head up.

I had to read it, even if he wouldn’t be able to walk through it with me like I had hoped. It would answer some questions, even if it did raise others. Maybe it would answer the ones that were hard for him to talk about, like the fact that Seven… is his… twin brother…. _God that’s so_ … unexpected. Strange. Sad?

Yeah, maybe a little sad.

> **Briar:** Okay.  
>  **Saeran:** Is that all that happened?  
>  **Briar:** ...No..  
>  **Briar:** So… when I realized who Seven is, I kind of freaked out. I didn’t say anything, but I was probably making some stupid shocked face. And Aspen and Seven believed the lie I told them, they think I was just freaked out by something else. but V didn’t believe it.  
>  **Saeran:** god dammit. That asshole. Ignore him.  
>  **Briar:** No… He brought it up when he was leaving. He knows I know about you. He knows I’m talking to you.  
>  **Saeran:** … Fuck fuck fuck.  
>  **Briar:** I’m sorry. I screwed up. I’m so sorry.  
>  **Saeran:** Briar, it’s not your fault. Don’t apologize.   
> **Saeran:** Tell me what happened.

I typed up the whole conversation as accurately as I could and read over it at least three times before finally sending off the massive wall of text to him. He took a while to reply and I spent a lot of the time waiting for the response trying to calm down. V really hadn’t said anything bad… I could message him and ask him to keep it all a secret too, though I was already fairly certain he was planning on doing so.

> **Saeran:** what’s this bullshit about ‘other half’  
>  **Saeran:** I’m no one’s fucking other half.  
>  **Saeran:** ugh.  
>  **Briar:** I don’t know. I’m sorry  
>  **Saeran:** Stop apologizing, Briar. You’re fine. You didn’t do anything wrong.  
>  **Saeran:** I can’t tell if he knows about Mint Eye.  
>  **Saeran:** He was so vague. But the bit about peace for both sides and keeping things to yourself leads me to believe he isn’t going to say shit either.  
>  **Briar:** I can message him and tell him to not say anything   
> **Saeran:** Uggggghhhhh my head is killing me. I don’t know what to do about this  
>  **Briar:** I’m sorry, Saeran. I wish this didn’t happen.  
>  **Saeran:** It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay. I promise you, Briar. I’m not upset with you. Nothing about this is your fault. I’m pissed at him.  
>  **Briar:** okay…  
>  **Saeran:** Message him. Tell me what he says. After that… lets ignore it for now.  
>  **Saeran:** My head hurts too much to figure out what else to do  
>  **Briar:** Okay, hang on

I opened the RFA app, shocked to see a message from V sitting in my inbox already. _Like he can read my mind._

> **V:** Briar, I’m sure you’re aware already, but what we talked about in the elevator cannot be discussed on the messenger… For reasons I hope are clear to you.

_Crap, I didn’t even think about that._ Seven would be able to see everything we talked about…. _It’s kind of reassuring that he’s wary of that as well._

> **Briar:** Understandable.  
>  **V:** I can’t even fathom how you’ve managed to get in this position. But it’s happened, and there is no changing it now. I wish we could discuss things easier, but I’m afraid I have to leave for some time again. Can you promise me to maintain peace while I’m away?  
>  **Briar:** Only if you promise to do the same for me.  
>  **V:** I do. I promise.  
>  **Briar:** Then I promise you too.   
>  **V:** Thank you. I’m putting a lot of trust in you  
>  **Briar:** I am as well.   
>  **V:** Briar, I will contact you when I can. Please take care of… for me. Truly, it is relieving for me to know it’s you of all people who could have came into this situation.

He seems to care about Saeran… _If that’s the case, then why did any of this happen?_

> **Briar:** As if you need to ask…

That seemed to be the end of the messages, so I snapped a screenshot of it and sent it off to Saeran, quickly deleting all traces of the image from my phone.

> **Saeran:** I’ll erase the conversation after he’s logged off.  
>  **Briar:** Good idea.  
>  **Saeran:** Ugh. This is such a mess.  
>  **Briar:** ...sorry..  
>  **Saeran:** Briar. Stop. Don’t worry about it.   
>  **Saeran:** I have no reason to trust that liar, but he’d probably be screwing himself over if he told anyone about me. So I’m going to assume he’ll keep his fat mouth shut.  
>  **Saeran:** You go get some proper sleep, you need it.   
>  **Briar:** You need to rest too.  
>  **Saeran:** Last night was the most sleep I’ve gotten in years. I’m good for a while. I’ve got tons of shit to get done for Mint Eye right now.  
>  **Briar:** You’re being ridiculous, you need more sleep.  
>  **Saeran:** Don’t worry about me, you’re the one whose been dealing with nothing but bullshit for days. Go to bed.  
>  **Briar:** Don’t worry about me! You’re the one whose sick!  
>  **Saeran:** How the hell can I not worry about you? And I’ve dealt with worse situations, I’m fine.  
>  **Briar:** Saeran… this could go back and forth all night. Just sleep soon, okay?  
>  **Saeran:** …I’ll try. You get some rest too.


End file.
